Another winning Saturday and 3pts banked

This year’s Cheltenham Festival Bulletin got off to a cracking start with the way results played-out yesterday, and early purchasers are already sitting pretty with an advised antepost wager.

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I was at Ascot races yesterday, and a great day it was too. My first wager of the afternoon was on HOUBLON DES OBEAUX @ 4/1 as I did not think he was far away in ability from the odds-on fav ROCKY CREEK. A few of these novices were lt down by their jumping with Real Milan blundering at the 4^th fence4 and losing all chance (was pulled-up), and Tour Des Champs hitting 4-out hard and nearing losing his jockey in the process. That left Houblon Des Obeaux and Rocky Creek fighting out the finish and they both jumped very well under pressure and at speed. Altho’ Rocky Creek won, he did not win by much. Post-race, Paul Nicholls hinted that Rocky Creek may be saved for a Hennessey tilt in the autumn and so miss Cheltenham next month. As for Houblon Des Obeaux, he looks worthy of support at the Cheltenham Festival whatever target he takes in.

Next up at 2:40, my selection BRACKLOON HIGH ran a stinker and his jumping was indifferent. Some he jumped well keeping up with the pace for the first couple of miles, till those jumps he hit hard took their toll and he faded. I think with a better round of jumping he’d have been involved as the overall performace of the others wasn’t up to much. Yes, I did underestimate the winner Vino Griego, but Cappa Bleu merely ran to his OR145 rating in my opinion. 

The performance of the afternoon at Ascot was from CUE CARD. I placed my wager on-course with rails bookmaker Geoff Banks as he is also a user of Twitter (see the link to his site on this page). I thought CUE CARD ran a cracker of a race. Yes, he did make an error mid-race, but overall his jumping was sound and the pace he set was taxing. The runner-up Captain Chris was put under a lot of pressure and, as such, he misjudged the 2^nd-last fence and lost his chance. If he was good enough then he’d have jumped the fence at speed, but he wasn’t. On this form, CUE CARD looks like being hard to beat in the Ryanair, it looks his race to lose.

At Haydock, I was disappointed that MONBEG DUDE did not start racing until the final half mile, when he made up a lot of ground passing beaten horses to come from last into 3^rd place. He looks to be racing to his mark of OR138. Not so the winner, WELL REFRESHED, who has improved tremendously in the past few months and still looks like having more to come. Connections reckon he’s done enough for now and won’t go for Cheltenham.  I reckon he’s a 150+ horse on this run and he may go up another 7-10lb for this win to OR139 which would put him right in the mix for the Hennessey Gold Cup this autumn and then the Grand National next year.

So, it was another winning Saturday for supporters and followers of the blog, with 3pts profit on 4½pts staked thanks to CUE CARD.

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