This time last year the blog warmed-up with its initial wagers, including the 9/2 winner Oscar Rock in the Listed Chase at Market Rasen. In todays' "Weekender" we have the early entries for Saturday's race and, after a brief perusal, I reckon that I've narrowed the likely winner down to one of 3 of the 17 potential runners.
Winner-finding at the time of the year at such an early stage in the jumps season "proper", it can be tricky finding winners as much comes down to the actual fitness of the horses: some can come to their seasonal debut ready to race at their best, but many others need a race to bring them to peak fitness, and more than a few need more than one race! Yet the rule book says that each horse should come to the races prepared to run to its merits.
Some trainers always have their horses fit and ready to run, certainly the top trainers do such as Henderson, Nicholls, Twiston-Davies and King. Away from that quartet, there are a few others who I like to keep on my side with regards horse fitness and readiness to race, and in this respect I was sorry to learn last week that a small trainer whom I've followed for the past 5 or 6 seasons over the jumps was having to close their stable due to lack of support – and that is Caroline Keevil. Caroline always had her horses well-prepared, especially her chasers, and you always knew that you'd get a good run for your money.
There are no odds published yet for Saturdays jumps card at Market Rasen, so I can't advise an early wager, but I will be keeping close-tabs on the bookies – and also the weather. With no significant rain forecast over the next few days, together with temperatures rising slightly towards the weekend, the ground could be on the fast side of "good" which will likely puncture the chances of some horses that will be hoping for some juice in the ground.
As with last season, I will be confining my selections to races of Class 3 and above. Expect another blog posting on Friday when we should have some odds to consider and a better indication of the likely ground conditions on Saturday.
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