Three to follow from the Weekend: 20th, 21st & 22nd December…

🎶It was Christmas Eve babe…🎶

…which means I’ve got a TON of analysis to plough through for the Boxing Day analysis I’ll be providing for full NTF members…

…but I’ve still got time for one last ‘3 to follow from the weekend’ for 2024…

---

Three to follow from the weekend: 20th, 21st & 22nd December…

.

 PERSONAL AMBITION (Ben Pauling)

2nd in a Grade 2 Novices’ Chase – 3.05 Ascot (Friday 20th Dec) 

A little surprised he hasn’t managed to open his chase account on 1 of his first 3 starts over fences, but I wonder if….

a) he maybe wants to go left-handed… he’s now 0/2, 0p on RH tracks…

and

b) he wants a bigger field to show his best… his 3 hurdle wins came in fields of 12+ and he’s 3/3 in fields of 12+ and 0/5, 0p in fields of 10 or less…

…it’s a little bit of a strange one, the field size angle, as he’s a front-runner and in theory the smaller fields should suit better…but that’s not what the form book is showing…

…could be that connections have a large field handicap chase in the spring as his ultimate goal and he’s one that’s worth keeping firmly on the radar…

,

 SOLO (Paul Nicholls)

4th in a Class 2 Handicap Chase – 1.15 Ascot (Saturday 21st Dec) 

A much better effort than on recent starts and he wasn’t beaten far come the line…

The conditions he raced under on Saturday were ones I’d have as his rough PC…

Oct-Feb | RH tracks | <2m5f | DSLR >30 = 421213241 (3/9, 3p – all 3 career wins)

…but maybe he just needs to drop another few pounds from his current mark of OR 145 before he becomes fully competitive again (he was dropped 3lbs to OR 142 for this run)…

The handicap chase at Sandown in February that Nicholls won 3-times with Dolos could be a potential target for him…

,

 XCITATIONS (Pam Sly)

3rd in a Class 3 Handicap Chase – 1.30 Haydock (Saturday 21st Dec) 

On a winnable handicap mark at present off OR 126 and he is a reliable sort when getting his PC to run under…

I have his PC as…

OR 134 or less | Hcps with 13 or less runners | DSLR 21-100 = 311111211 (7/9, 2p – all 7 career wins)…

6 of his 7 career wins have come in the November to January period and all 7 wins have come in the November to March period, so he’s well worth keeping on the radar over the coming weeks and months…

---

The ‘Three to follow from the weekend’ posts may go quiet for the next couple of weeks… but they will be back at full tilt as per normal once we are out of the Christmas & New Year madness…

… and if you want more from me during the festive period…

Festive Period Offer…

This is the last day to hook up to NTF on the Festive Ticket offer…

⭐⭐🎄🎄⭐⭐

NTF Festive Ticket: Last chance to join…

>>>See what NTF can do for YOU over the Festive period

⭐⭐🎄🎄⭐⭐

Enjoy the Festive period, however you plan on spending it, and I’ll be back on it with the Free NTF Blog posts in 2025…

Cheers – Ben (NTF)

…and remember to check out ‘The Racing PodBlast‘… we nailed all 3 races we covered at Ascot last week… and we both banged in a double on Top, Middle & Bottom… it was a great show 😎🍾

>>>Don’t miss out on anymore PodBlast winners