NTF 1 to follow from the weekend: Minsta can be a lad this summer…

Plenty of National Hunt action to tuck into over the weekend just past, none of it of any real great shakes but nonetheless a few runners going into my trusty notebook.

For today’s post I’ve plumped for an all the way winner at Kelso who should have a bit of juice in him yet from a very lowly handicap mark…

NTF 1 to follow from the weekend: MINSTALAD…

MINSTALAD (Mrs K Tutty) – 1st in the Class 5 3m2f handicap chase at Kelso (2.40) – Sunday 26th May

This 9yo was making his first start over fences out of points/hunter chases and put in a sterling front-running display to hold off the pack. He looks a safe and sound jumper from the front and I didn’t count any real errors as he bounded his way to victory. As the race started to reach the business end he was actually passed by the eventually 3rd & 4th but he kept digging, kept jumping and kept finding and quite easily got himself back into a commanding position. He idled slightly up the hill but he was always holding them and it may have just been that he got a little tired, which is fair enough being this was only his 2nd start in recent times and coming from a small yard he may have just needed the run to sharpen him. It was an average race but he did it well and his attitude and jumping prowess were the main attraction to me.

So where to now for MINSTALAD?

Trainer Karen Tutty only has a handful of horses in the National Hunt sphere and this 9yo looks like he could well be a cut above her usual clutch of jumpers.This was only his 2nd start for his new yard and the booking of Brian Toomey was a positive move for sure and hopefully he keeps the ride going forward from here. MINSTALAD was running from a mark of 73 yesterday (technically 70 if we take into account the jockeys claim) and you would hope he doesn’t go up too much for winning in this company by 1 length (even though I reckon he had plenty more than 1 length up his sleeve). I doubt he is a horse that is capable of running well from marks in the 100/110’s but he has a bit of a way to go before reaching that and if placed correctly he could well fire in a few more wins from lowly marks over the summer.

From a breeding slant he is a horse that holds plenty of stamina influences in his pedigree and he utilized them extremely well yesterday. He has a solid, rumble along galloping nature and very much looks the kind that just winds it up from the front and keeps motoring along at the same pace in a “try and pass me guys” type of attitude.  Galloping tracks clearly suit him to a tee, where he can get into a steady rhythm  and grind along at his own rate, and those type of tracks are probably the ideal place for him to find more winning opportunities.

Minstalad ideal conditions – 3m+ Handicap Chases | Galloping tracks

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Summer Stunners…

As some of you may have noticed there was an NTF Summer Stunner running yesterday; Quinsman in the 5.20 at Uttoxeter. He didn’t have his conditions though so it wasn’t a bet for myself. Fast ground over 2 miles really isn’t ideal for him and although he jumped well enough at the start he just couldn’t go with the others when the pace increased around halfway. He did plug on though and as mentioned in my guide he has stamina in his pedigree and I would want to see him over at least 2m4f, if not even given a bash at 3 miles. If he does manage to pop in somewhere over the summer I would suspect it will be at a rather tasty price…

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Site issues over the weekend…

My sincere apologies for the site being down over the weekend. I couldn’t access it on Sunday at all to upload anything which is bloody annoying as I had planned to cover both Irish Guineas for you all. The guide was done and ready to go but the site had decided it was partaking in some Bank Holiday shenanigans!?! Added to that I also couldn’t get into my email program to send out the guide as an attachment!!

The frustrating thing about this was the fact Just The Judge was the only runner to score full marks on the extended trends analysis!!

For what it’s worth (not much now, I know!!) I have attached the Irish 1000 Guineas guide below…

>>> Irish 1000 Guineas NTF Analysis Guide

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**Brand New NTF Sister Site: Badly Drawn Horse!**

As some of you may have noticed me mention I was in the process of setting up a new Flat sister site to NTF. Well it’s done!

The new site is called ‘Badly Drawn Horse‘ and will eventually be the place I host all of the flat stuff that I analyse. It also has it’s own theme that concentrates on a particular zone of the flat game and I will hopefully be blogging on there on a regular basis.

I would be delighted if you would pop over and have a gander at the new site, the first post is already live and if you like my ‘1 to follow’ posts them I’m pretty sure you will enjoy the theme of BDH as well.

>>>Visit Badly Drawn Horse and check out the inaugural post 

By the way you don’t need to sign up to any new mailing list or anything like that as I will tell you all about it through the FREE NTF Service. If the new site isn’t your thing then that’s cool, it won’t distract from NTF in any way at all 🙂.

Ben – (NTF).

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