Go Go Green to take the spoils at Beverley

In today’s blog:
Review of yesterday’s racing
Today’s Racing Selections
2010-11 Chasers & Hurdlers Alert List

Review of yesterday’s racing
My reading of the Lingfield 4:00 was all wrong. Both Mishrif and the blog selection ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE ran disappointingly.
Over the jumps at Newton Abbot, the West Country trainers Nigel Twiston-Davies and Paul Nicholls declared their intent for the season sending out 5 winners between them; 3 from 3 for Twiston-Davies, and 2 from 2 for Nicholls (making it 5 winners from his last 7 runners for him).
Other in-form trainers visiting the winners enclosure were Mick Jarvis who’s only runner Forjatt won at 9/4; and Ed Dunlop who sent two to Lingfield and had a 9/2 winner with Kanaf.
Jockey Adrian Nicholls won another non-handicap when steering Masta Plasta to win a Class 3 conditions race at 4/1. Take note whenever he has a ride in a non-handicap race (or on a none Dandy Nicholls trained horse) his record in these races is phenomenal.

Today’s Racing Selections
There’s a couple of interesting races at Beverley, including the 5f race at 3:45. Not sure what went wrong LTO as he was well supported, but GO GO GREEN again has it all in his favour in this race and the last time he ran over 5f in a Class 4 he won. Trainer DH Brown has 4 wins from 11 runners (4yo+) here, and jockey Graham Gibbons has won 2 of his 6 rides for Brown this season. So I reckon they mean business, as such the 12/1 now on offer looks generous. The Class 3 handicap over 10f at 4:20 looks ultra-competitive and if you can find the winner then fair-play, you’ve done well.
I can’t see anything of interest at Hamilton, nor at Salisbury.
At Yarmouth, Mick Jarvis sends his only runner today MAANY (cost $500,000) for the 2:20. Jarvis is 8 wins from 28 runners with his 3yo’s here. The only other runner of interest at Yarmouth is Barney Curleys SIR MOZART in the 3:25.
The evening meeting at Sandown needs a bit more form study, if I find anything of interest, I will return with a comment to this blog at 5pm, but checkout Cecil’s only runner today WHIRLY DANCER in the 7:10 along with Saeed Bin Suroor’s only runner today, ASRAAB ,in the same race.

Selection:
Beverley 3:45, GO GO GREEN, ½pt each-way & 1pt win @ 12/1 (Bet 365)
Total = 2pts staked

2010-11 Chasers & Hurdlers Alert List
Gentle Ranger, 8yo chaser trained by David PIPE
There are not going to be many aged over 7yo in my list of Chasers & Hurdlers, but if there is to be one then it has to come from the “king” of the handicap trainers, David Pipe. I believe that he will over-shadow his father’s record given time, and I expect him to confirm himself as the master of the handicap this season. In GENTLE RANGER he has a horse that can be a force to reckon with in the National trial handicaps, and is a possible National winner given his jumping ability and running style, being always “in the van” with a gentle, lolloping action.
I’ve included the 8yo GENTLE RANGER as he has so few miles on the clock, not seeing a racecourse ‘proper’ till March 2008 in a maiden hurdle. He went chasing in 2008-09 but just did not seem to get the hang of it. After a summer at grass, he returned in Nov-09 to win a 3-mile handicap chase at Exeter with a tremendously game performance; and behind him that day were the likes of Dancing Mist, Present M’Lord, Bertie May, Qhilimar, and Grand Slam Hero. The heavy ground at Chepstow stopped him NTO, but he ran another cracker at Newbury on Good-to-Soft, and then a game race at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day on Soft. He was found out again by heavy going at Wincanton in January, before he went to the Festival for the National Hunt Chase. As usual, he was with the leaders and jumping superbly till he fell when missing a stride at the 4th-last. I reckon he’d have been placed (at least) that day but for falling, and he repaid the faith with a game win when he returned to Cheltenham in April. He’s only been raised 4lb for that win to OR134 which I think is very lenient as the runner-up Minella Four Star ran 4th (btn 3-lengths) in the Summer National off a 1lb higher mark, and the rest of this solid field were beaten a long way out. With only 10 chases on his record (2 wins and 3 x 2nds) he looks to have a lot more improvement in him so long as he stays away from the heavy going; and I can see him being OR140-145 next March when I expect him to line-up in the National as one of the market leaders.

I’ve added a new page for the master list of Chasers & Hurdlers, so refer to that for all the previous write-ups that have been posted on the blog. If you have any comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’ve also prepared a booklist for the coming Jumps season, and I’ve written a review of the latest Cheltenham Festival with some statistical trend analysis that will (hopefully) help find the winners come March 2011. I’ll be adding race-by-race reviews for the entire meeting over the next few days.

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Thanks from Wayward Lad