National Hunt season coming into view

I'm starting to get excited now as Perth and Market Rasen this week both held decent cards over the jumps and thoughts of the winter season can really start coming now. Perth held a fixture on Wednesday and Thursday, the highlight probably being the appearance of last season's Betfair Hurdle winner Splash of Ginge over fences this time, although he was actually quite disappointing and well beaten. This was a reoccurring theme for the Twiston-Davis clan over the week with the 'new' The New One BalleyBolly done by an 80/1 shot when he went off a 2/5 favourite probably the biggest disappointment, especially considering the yard usually start the season so well. NTD did have a couple of winners but he had a few beaten favourites and isn't a yard I'd want to put full trust in just yet. You couldn't say the same for the yard of Charlie Longsdon though, despite the trainer himself saying he wanted to make a slower start to this year! Longsdon has sent out 6 winners from his last 8 runners, not a very slow start in my book!

Anyway on to the action over the sticks at Market Rasen on Saturday and this really was a very good card for this time of year. We saw the Good Doctor send out the winner of the feature race on the card in Mart Lane who got up after the last to lead home Dursey Sound and Houston Dynimo, who had looked all over the winner coming over the final obstacle. Mart Lane is a horse who definitely goes best fresh so it will be interesting to see how Newland campaigns this one but apparently a visit to Cheltenham may be in order at the end of October.
David Pipe sent out Unanimite in the opener on his debut on English Soil but the impressive nature of his win, beating several previous winners, makes it almost certain that we will be seeing more of this French bred this season. Although he didn't start the race particularly well he certainly won with some authority (beating another Twister favourite) and with Pipe well versed at getting the best out of horses with Unanimite's profile he may well be one to follow this season. Royal Irish Hussar took this race last season, a horse I followed season long hoping for more success, and I will be interested to see if Unanimite can better his achievements. The money certainly came for him before the off so clearly he is fancied by the stable, one for the tracker perhaps.
Finally Exitas took the feature hurdle race on the card, his 2nd win in a week and the way he was going away at the finish makes you think his winning run has not come to an end yet. He was running here off bottom weight, only being declared by his trainer with seconds to spare apparently! Carrying a penalty for his success on the 21st at Uttoxeter Exitas pulled well clear of the field after clearing the last under the capable Conor Shoemark and I'd fancy Middleton's charge to win again, especially if upped in distance slightly as he was not stopping at the finish line.

Finally one trainer that caught my eye at Market Rasen was Brian Ellison; the dual purpose trainer sent out a winner and a 2nd to Pipe's winner in the opener and I'll be keeping an eye on his runners over the coming weeks. I hope that with the yard having been in full swing of things over the summer anyhow getting going with his jumping types should be a quicker process than a yard who would just be coming out of hibernation for the winter. That's my theory anyway and I'll keep the blog updated with the success of this trial!

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More National Hunt musings with Lavelle and Longsdon

This week BetRacingNation have done a couple more great National Hunt interviews, with Emma Lavelle and Charlie Longsdon on the end of the line this week. Last year Longsdon started the season on fire and I am sure many punters will be looking to the young trainer in the October and November months this year as they try and get angle in. However a word of warning for you; Longsdon was bemoaning the fact he ended up with a load of badly handicapped horses come the big races in Spring last season due to his great early-season success. He actually said he will purposely be starting this season at a slower pace so that he has more of a chance come Springtime and the likes of Aintree and Cheltenham festivals, certainly something to bear in mind when assessing your betting choices. Charlie did give a glowing reference to a youngster he bought from France this season by the Stallion Irish Wells. Unfortunately I didn't quite catch the name but I'm sure it will become obvious once Longsdon enters him up and the trainer seemed sure that he would win his share of races in the coming season.

Emma Lavelle gave a really interesting interview and I was struck by how excited she seemed about her horse Timesremembered, a grade 2 winning hurdler last seasons and soon to be novice chaser. Emma though he was really tough, versatile with ground and would improve a bundle over fences because he would show his obstacles more respect. Definitely one to keep on side I'd say.
Another of the Lavelle string who will surely be making his mark on the National Hunt sphere this year is Le Bec, a faller in last year's RSA chase. Lavelle gave Le Bec a really positive mention and she thinks Le Bec could be a potential Gold Cup horse, with the Hennessy in November a target before the big one at Cheltenham in March, Certainly if Le Bec is as good as his trainer seemed to think he won't simply be making up the numbers in the big races of the 2014-15 Jumps season.

You can catch both interviews at the Bet Racing Nation website, as well as the Nicky Henderson interview I blogged about last week. As the Jumps season comes into view there interviews will definitely be worth listening back too and taking a few notes on!

Thanks for reading!