No wagers recommended yesterday, and I missed a few short-priced losers!
After writing the blog, I thought MIDNIGHT PRAYER was nailed-on and had a personal wager at 15/8. Sure enough, he ran a great race, but he couldn't hold Benvolio. The winner had showed that he had a bright future when winning his final hurdle race in game style over 2m6f on heavy ground at Wincanton in February. He'd fallen at the 1st fence when favourite for his chasing debut, and so came into the race with something to prove. That he was able to give 3lb to MIDNIGHT PRAYER and a beating suggests he is well up to being a 150+ chaser and should be followed. Paul Nicholls (trainer of Benvolio) has his team firing on all cylinders, but the same cannot be said of Alan King's stable, and MIDNIGHT PRAYER can be given another chance.
BOBCATBILLY drifted in the betting before failing to run-on in his race and went down by under 2-lengths to be 3rd. The winner Cloudy Joker, has now won both his chase starts and both times has only done just enough to win. MR MUDDLE lost the plot after making mistakes, and GULLINBURSTI (who had no easy task) was unable to cope with proven chasers Super Duty and race-winner Hadrian's Approach. At least King Massini scooted-up at Ludlow, having exposed the stamina limitations of Rydalis and Cootehill.
There are meetings at Exeter and Towcester today. The meeting at Exeter is a little disappointing; with perhaps the only highlight being the promise of a display of jumping from the Paul Nicholls horse BURY PARADE. Towcester is not much better, but that I have no alert list runners today helps be decide to keep my money in my pocket.
As such, I've been able to get ahead of myself in reviewing the form of last week's races in the Weekender (published yesterday), and I will be updating my alert list this afternoon. There were a couple of very interesting performances last week that caught my eye. For instance, on 10th December, BUCKING THE TREND looked a horse with a lot of potential when the 5yo won over 2m6f. He's only been raised 6lb for that win to OR128, but he looks a 140+ horse. I think I've found a few more like that, and there are also several already on my list that have slipped a couple of pounds despite running well over trips either too short or too long. For instance, both AL ALFA and SAVED BY JOHN have come down a couple of pounds.
No selections today, as there are better opportunities coming up in the next couple of days.
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