Week Review and the National Hunt game is getting lively

A few Nicholls winners (actually surprising after his stable's start to the season), a few familiar Cheltenham names back out and a Wayne Hutchinson injury...thats right the National Hunt season is really getting going now. I jest about the last part of that sequence, as a runner myself I know the disappointment of injury and Wayne seems to be a really unlucky jockey in this regard, but it has left Alan King in a tricky Jockey position for this weekend but not for the reasons he is used to! Usually he has trouble deciding whether Choc or Wayne ride his horses, but now with both potentially sidelined he has the task of finding some suitable substitutes for his weekend runners. However with the form of the stable currently I'm sure there will be a few agents on the phone at the moment trying to get a hot ride off King who is operating at a 38% strike rate over the last fortnight-sizzling!!!
We'v seen some useful performances this week, and yesterday saw a cracking Novice Chase fought out at Carlisle between Urban Hymn and Duke of Navan, the latter coming out on top by a head but undoubtably horses that will both be going places this season. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Urban Hymn upped in trip given his hurdling form came over further. whilst Duke of Navan will be kept at shorter trips as he has contested the Fighting Fifth and other shorter hurdling trips. Buywise, a very unlucky loser at last year's Cheltenham festival, made a winning re-appearance and was trimmed into 10/1 for this year's Paddy Power Gold Cup on the back of this. Trainer Evan Williams was hugely downbeat over his horse's fitness pre-race so to see him win, and win well, bodes well as he can be expected to come on hugely for the run.

                                                         Potential Paddy Power Gold Cup winner??

I really liked the run of Binge Drinker, the Rebecca Curtis winner of a maiden hurdle at Worcester on Wednesday. I had this horse in my tracker as one Curtis had urged readers of the highly informative ATR Stable Tours to keep an eye out for this season and in winning by 9L he certainly went some way to justifying his trainer's faith in him. It will be interesting to see where Curtis goes next with this one but look out for it wherever it goes.

Some losers for the week...firstly Philip Fenton who looks like reaching the end of his training career after being found guilty of possession of steroids and other banned substances. He has been fined, lost his Gigginstown horses and the punishment from the Irish Turf Club is yet to come. Rightly so...apparently they found enough steroid to dose 250 different horses, absolutely sickening behaviour and he has rightly been hung out to dry for this. I hope this sets a president for Drugs in the game, but I'm a bit concerned that this could only be the tip of the iceberg given the spate of drugs cases in the media recently. We can only wait and see and hope that these stories don't tarnish the reputation of the game too much but it certainly does not look good...at all.

                                           Disgraced trainer Philip Fenton

On a slightly lighter note let's look at some losers from the actual horse racing action on the track. Deputy Dan, a high class staying hurdler last year, made his comeback at Fontwell on Wednesday. I don't think he lost too much in going down to Virak over a trip too short and round a track that would have been plenty sharp enough. Deputy Dan jumped very well and whilst perhaps Oliver Sherwood will have to re-assess his sights this season it was no disaster of a performance and there are definitely wins to be had over fences this season.

Puffin Billy and Far West both went down at Exeter on this chasing debuts, being beaten well by Dunraven Storm, however with the form of the Nicholls horses not great thus far and Puffin Billy having been off injured for a long time I also wouldn't like to write the 2nd and 3rd placed horses off just yet even though they were very well beaten by the Philip Hobb's trained winner. Also on this card we saw a lot of losers in the Betfair in running markets as Go West Young Man took his name rather too literally in the 4:10. Jumping the last in the lead and looking for all the world (and 23K matched at 1.01) the winner Go West Young Man careered off to the West leaving Thundering Home, a 25/1 chance, to come and take the win. Go West Young Man eventually managed to finish 6th, incredible and definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it already.

We've got some cracking action coming up this weekend from Aintree and Chepstow, with the Old Roan Chase the highlight of it all. I won't go into the action in too much depth as decs are not yet out for the races but I would urge readers to keep an eye on Spirit of Shankly in whatever race he turns up in (has engagements at Chepstow and Aintree) as he received some hugely positive words from his trainer in this weeks Racing Post Weekender. Sadly we won't see Kauto Stone in the Old Roan Chase, I was really keen to see how he would get on after the stable change, but the race still looks to be a very open contest and will be a great watch regardless. I'll be back to review the weekend cards at some point so thanks for reading this blog and speak soon!