Water water everywhere was certainly the theme this weekend as fortunately all three National Hunt cards got the go-ahead on Saturday after looking very touch and go as to whether we would see any jumps racing in England. The going was extremely testing at Wetherby, Sandown and Ffos Las which did lead to some impressive staying performances. Emperor's Choice loves these conditions and took full advantage of them, winning the war of attrition that was the 3 and 1/2 mile West Wales National (is there anywhere that doesn't have a National of some sort now??), one of four winners on the day for the Venetia Williams yard who seem to absolutely love it when the mud is flying.
I was more impressed with the weight carrying performance of Saphir Du Rheu to win the Welsh Champion Hurdle, managing to give 6lbs and a beating to the useful Henderson horse Whisper. Saphir Du Rheu has now won his last three races and if he was owned by anyone else you would think he would head to a weak looking World Hurdle with an decent e/w chance. However the Stewart Family have a wealth of talent in that division, with Big Bucks and Celestial Halo more experienced horses who are definitely heading to the race, and Nicholls post-race comments would indicate Cheltenham is not the plan this season. The ex-Champion trainer reckons this horse could be a cracking chaser in time, the best the Stewart family have had with him although I'm not sure that's saying too much, but given his fairly busy schedule so far this season giving the festival a swerve may prove to be a wise move.
However one horse that is heading to Cheltenham is Oscar Whiskey for the JLT Novices Chase and he was out in a three runner novices chase at Sandown. Predictably he won the race as odds of 1/6 suggested he would but this was certainly not the performance of a horse with serious aspirations of glory come March. There was certainly a period of time where it looked like the Alan King runner Manyriverstocross could have the favourite in trouble, however Oscar asserted as they closed in on the finish line. To be fair on the horse the ground was nothing like that on which he will face come March (I still live in hope that the weather will improve soon!) but at odds as short as 7/1 I'd not be rushing to back him for the JLT. He does have Cheltenham form over both fences and hurdles, which is worth a good deal as some horses simply do not handle the testing undulations of the course, and is a very classy horse so will definitely have his supporters in the market. I am not one of those supporters though, Taquin Du Seuil has my heart in the JLT betting, and even if he didn't Wonderful Charm only got beat 1/2 a length by Oscar Whiskey at Cheltenham trying to give the Henderson horse 8lbs. Off level weights that would have been a totally different story and that is another of the multiple reasons I have for doubting Oscar Whiskeys chances in the JLT come March.
One horse I was looking forward to seeing at Wetherby on Saturday was the JP McManus owned Shutthefrontdoor. Disappointing last time out, the horse was on something of a retrieval mission but was denied the chance to put himself back into punters ante-post thoughts after being withdrawn 30 minutes before race time. I heard on racing UK that the horse has had a breathing operation since finishing last of 4 behind Sam Winner when sent off 13/8 favourite for a Novices Chase at Cheltenham in December which meant that I was more than willing to forgive that bad run. Previous to that Shutthefrontdoor has some decent form, narrowly being beaten by Le Bec over a 3 mile 1 furlong chase in November and winning on his chasing debut at Aintree, not to mention his smart hurdle form, and I still quite like his chances if given a go in either the RSA or the 4 miler come March. You can get generous odds of 33/1 for the RSA about this horse currently while Le Bec trades at 16/1 for the same race and judging on the November form I do not think they should be that far apart in the market. Shutthefrontdoor has bags of stamina and also good Cheltenhaam form in the book - if the breathing operation has worked it's magic expect a smart performance next time out which will lead to those odds tumbling down. Definitely one to watch in my opinion.
There was a great little card up at Musselburgh on Sunday which makes a change for racing on these shores!I don't understand why we continue to have several cracking cards on a Saturday, often making it difficult to concentrate on all the racing properly, and have such low-quality fare on Sundays. I would much rather spread the racing over the weekend, and I'm sure it would be well attended as well, however we seem to be set in our ways of overloading Saturday's in this country! While I won't go into the results from that card in any depth I was pleased to see Ryan Mania ride a double in the first too races in that card especially given the sadness he would have felt at seeing his Grand National winning horse Auroras Encore retired in the week. The horse has been a fantastic servant to the Sue Smith yard and I hope he has a very enjoyable retirement.
That's all for this week, lets hope the rain eases in the weeks ahead and we can start racing on ground with 'good' sneaking into the going description sometime soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment