Beware of the ‘Twister’ Blinker….

Remember my ‘It can pay to be blinkered when it comes to McCain and Maguire…‘ Blog post?

It’s done alright since I highlighted it to you all hasn’t it?

3 runners –  2 winners and 1 placed

NODFORM RICHARD 3rd at 9/2 – RAILWAY DILLON 1st at 9/2 – SAGA DE TERCEY 1st at 15/8

The qualifiers don’t come along that often but it certainly pays to take heed when there is one taking to the track.

To get a refresher on the angle simply head back to the original post.

The 1st time blinkers angle is an area that I’ve researched thoroughly in recent weeks and there are plenty of areas of interest for us to take notice of.

Today I want to highlight to you all another strong trend that caught my eye, this time a trainer we should be looking to avoid when he reaches for the 1st time blinkers – Nigel Twiston-Davies.

Take a look at his figures for first time blinkers runners since 2006 –

Nigel Twiston-Davies runners wearing 1st time blinkers (2006 – present)

72 runners | 4 winners | 6% S/R | -£27.50 BFLSP (Win & Place – 20/78 | 28% S/R)

Slim pickings on the win front and not that much better on the win & place either. The facts are that the Gloucestershire based trainer struggles to land the prize when sending a horse to the track with first time blinkers on.

If we look a bit closer we can see that it is his handicap runners that we should particularly be looking to avoid –

55 runners | 2 winners | 4% S/R | -£34.11 BFLSP (Win & Place – 12/55 | 23% S/R)

Essentially I would want plenty other factors to be in my favour before putting my money down on a Twiston-Davies first time blinker wearer.

There are numerous other ‘1st time blinkers’ angle that we should be aware of (positive & negative) and I’ll be looking to highlight these over the coming weeks and months on the Blog.

*All figures sourced from the excellent ProForm database

NTF 1 to follow from the week

FIND A KEY (N Richards) – Tuesday – 1.50 Ayr – 2nd in the Class 4 Novices’ Hurdle

It’s been great to have the National Hunt game cranking back into top gear this week after it’s enforced ‘freeze’ break. There has been plenty of racing up here in Scotland and one horse in particular went in my notebook. That horse was the Nicky Richards trained Gelding FIND A KEY. To me he looks like your typical chasing type, biding his time over the smaller obstacles whilst he grows into his considerable frame. He bumped into a potentially very smart French recruit at Ayr on Tuesday and if we consider the fact that FIND A KEY will probably prove better over further in time then this was a solid run from the Definite Article gelding. He already makes the shape of a chaser at his obstacles and although he could easily take a hurdle race or two before he switches codes he looks for all the word a chaser in the making to me. This horse looks one for novice chases next season and he goes in the notebook with an eye firmly on the future.

Happy Punting – Ben (NTF)