Discussion - Novice Hurdles

[RussP]

With the jumps season beginning to get up & running, I would like to ask a question about novice hurdles.

"What do you think about winners carrying a penalty?"

My opinion is that I would generally take these animals on. They generally go off at short prices but I'm pretty certain many of these get turned over. Obviously, there has to be an animal amongst the non-winners with a winning profile, or else it could be foolish to oppose. Mexican Bob runs tomorrow for Alan King with a penalty, and I'll be taking it on at around 6/4, probably with AP's mount, Shore Thing. Thoughts?

[BillyHills]

Re: Discussion - Novice Hurdles Russ, interesting one; Years ago i'd have said its a good policy to follow winners in Novice Events, you used to get horses running up sequences all the time. Nowadays it doesnt happen so much, sure you get the odd superstar like Katchit last year but its not that frequent. The reasons are open to question, but my thoughts are that trainers nowadays can get their horses fit first time out hence any horse with ability recieving 7lbs is worth a lot. They used to need a couple of runs and you could discount any horse that had not run therefore the one that had run and won was a good bet. We also have more National Hunt Flat races where these types can gain experience so its not such a big jump -excuse the pun- when they make their hurdle debuts. Theres no doubt in my mind that a 7lb pull in the weights is worth more now than it did in the past, and when they put a good young jockey on board that can take another few pounds off then backing a Novice with a penalty at a short price is a risky business. BH