Three to follow from the Weekend: 22nd, 23rd & 24th November…
So… like the last six renewals… and eight of the last nine renewals… it looks like the Cheltenham Gold Cup is likely to be staying in the hands of the Irish again this season…
A handful of the Irish contenders for the big race in March were unleashed in the John Durkan Chase on Sunday and it was hard to not be impressed by what materialised…
FACT TO FILE and SPILLANE’S TOWER served up a cracking finish to the Grade 1… with reigning Gold Cup champ GALOPIN DES CHAMPS a gallant third, at a track and trip that doesn’t play to his strengths… and it’s not hard to see that three filling the first three places in the Gold Cup come March…
And that’s before we factor in the likes of MONTY’S STAR, CORBETTS CROSS, I AM MAZIMUS, FASTORSLOW and GERRI COLOMBE…
Yep… it’s a strong Irish hand, no doubt about that…
But all is not lost for the home team… as GREY DAWNING did his Gold Cup prospects no harm at all… finishing second behind a horse in the shape of Royal Pagaille, who had his absolute bang on Prime Conditions to shoot for… Grey Dawning will almost certainly come on a ton for that seasonal debut effort as well (he’s now 1/4, 2p on seasonal debut compared to 7/10, 1p on all other starts) and he can make his presence felt come March… I reckon the Skelton’s have a real live Gold Cup player on their hands…
The Cheltenham Festival is a long way off yet, however, and there’s was plenty else happening last weekend, away from the Grade 1 action…
So here’s the latest ‘3 to follow from the weekend‘…
Three to follow from the weekend: 22nd, 23rd & 24th November…
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BUCKSY DES EPEIRES (Venetia Williams)
1st in a Class 3 Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase – 12.55 Ascot (Friday 22nd)
Venetia Williams could potentially have a decent one on her hands here… the 5yo won on his debut for the yard last season, picking off a maiden hurdle at Lingfield, and that in itself is unusual for the Venetia Williams runners, with her record in maiden hurdles with runners on their 1st and 2nd (UK) career starts reading… 2/73, 18p (78% below exp)… so the fact this one was able to pick off a race on stable debut maybe just suggests he’s got a bit of talent to play with… he looked to take to fences well here, whilst looking like he’d also come on plenty for the run (in terms of chasing know-how/experience), and Venetia Williams has a decent record of following up with her chasers that won on chase debut…
Venetia Williams | Hcp Chases | GB & FR bred 5yo-8yo’s | 1 previous chase starts | WON LTO = 17/32, 4p | +£24.18
…Bucksy Des Epeires looks worth keeping on the radar going on from this…
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ENJOY YOUR LIFE (Venetia Williams)
2nd in a Class 3 Handicap Chase – 2.15 Chepstow (Friday 22nd)
Bumped into a race fit and highly unexposed type in the shape of the winner (RANGE) here… but Enjoy Your Life will likely have needed the run to sharpen him up anyway, as he’s now 0/5 off breaks of >30-days… he ran off his last and highest winning mark of OR 118 here, so he’s handicapped to be competitive right now, and I have PC for him as…
OR 118 or less | Hcps | DSLR 30 or less = 112 (2/3, 1p)
…all that form is right-handed so he may also be at his optimum going the other way round, for all there was nothing outstandingly negative about him going left-handed here (he maybe took off on the wrong leg a few times)…
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MONBEG GENIUS (Jonjo O’Neill)
2nd in a Class 2 Handicap Chase – 3.40 Haydock (Saturday 23rd)
Always comes on for his seasonal debut/first run off a break (form off breaks of >42-days = 25P441) and there was plenty in this run to suggest he’s worth keeping on the radar, at least in the short-term.
I have Prime Conditions for him as…
LH tracks | DSLR <43 = P331111 (4/7, 2p – 4 of his 5 career wins)
…the P coming in the Ultima Chase at Cheltenham last season when wearing first time CP’s (which he possibly didn’t take to) and he could well have something decent in him off or around OR 144 (he ran 3rd in the Coral Gold Cup last season off OR 147)…
I’ll be back next Tuesday with the next installment of… ‘Three to follow from the weekend’…
In other news…
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The Coral Gold Cup from Newbury is the main focus this week (the Hennessy Gold Cup to a lot of us!)…
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Those two major handicaps will definitely be covered by myself for full NTF Members, using my in-depth Race Trends as the starting point…
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…there’s plenty of top-shelf action to tuck into over the next few days…
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Cheers – Ben (NTF)
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