Three to follow from the Weekend: 7th – 9th February…
Looks like we are now firmly in the period of the year where some of the big names start dropping out of the impending Cheltenham Festival…
And the latest one to drop out of this year’s meeting was none other than SIR GINO 🫨
According to his trainer Nicky Henderson (as reported in the Racing Post) the future for SIR GINO was “in the lap of the gods”… which sounds rather worrying… and also not the first time in the past few seasons a ‘superstar’ from the Henderson camp has been struck down with what may be a career/life threatening injury/illness/condition… very strange… 🤔🫤
Anyway… let’s hope SIR GINO pulls through all good and we get to see him on the racetrack sooner rather than later…
Moving on…
And time for the latest installment of… ‘Three to follow from the weekend‘…
Three to follow from the weekend: 7th – 9th February…
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 SCHALKE (Greenall & Guerriero)
4th in a Class 4 Handicap Chase – 2:12 Bangor (Friday 7th Feb)Â
The 10yo made a bad error at the 6th fence and that had him out of his ground and unable to land any serious blow after that… he did make ground up around 3-out/4-out, but he ultimately took too long to get back into a rhythm after his early mistake… the way this race panned out it was also hard for anything held-up out the back to make any serious impact in the closing stages (the first 5 home held running styles of… CP/FR-MID-CP-HU-FR… the HU being Schalke)…
This was only his 2nd Chase start, and first chase start for current yard, and he should have chases in him given his pedigree (by Malinas out of a Kings Theatre mare)… and he’s worth looking out for under the following Prime Conditions…
Hcps in Dec-March | OR 116 or less | fields of 12 or less | tracks with undulations | DSLR 21-56 = 2111 (3/4, 1p – all 3 career wins)
…for all we can maybe be a little bit looser on those now he’s with different yard this season…
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 GA LAW (J Snowdon)
5th in Grade 2 Denman Chase – 2:25 Newbury (Saturday 8th Feb)Â
I’m not convinced he stays all that well beyond 2m5f… form of 256FP7 (0/6, 1p) over trips further than 2m5f… and there must be a chance this was nothing more than a run to slide him back down the weights another couple of pounds, before firing him back into handicap company (he was dropped 2lbs to OR 152 for the run)…
I have his Prime Conditions as…
2m3f-2m5f | tracks with undulations | NOT G1 level | OR 155 or less = 2211111 (5/7, 2p – all 5 career wins)… preferably Good to Soft or quicker ground
…and he could be interesting for something like the Plate Handicap Chase on the Thursday of the Cheltenham Festival… where he should get his Prime Conditions (providing the ground is not riding testing)…
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 FAVOUR AND FORTUNE (A King)
4th in Class 1 William Hill Handicap Hurdle – 3:35 Newbury (Saturday 8th Feb)Â
I’d mark this run up a fair bit on the bare form based on a couple of reasons…
For starters the Alan King runners seem to be running cold at the minute… with form in 2025 of 3/45, 15p (60% below exp)… dropping to 0/25, 7p in the last 2 weeks… could be due to flu-jabs (although his yard doesn’t usually dip in Jan-Feb period, which is why the stats caught my attention)…
Secondly, this race has proven extremely difficult for those carrying 11-09+ to win… with stats of 0/47, 8p for that group of horses… Favour And Fortune was carrying 11-10 here…
Conditions were in his favour here…
Form on flat/slightly undulating tracks = 46112111 (5/8, 2p)
…and there was enough in this effort (given stable form and record of the highly weighted horses) to mark this up as a solid effort…
It was also a run that suggests his mark of OR 140 is still a mark he’s capable of winning from…
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That’s your lot from me this week… I’m off to complete my 2025 Cheltenham Festival Free Guide…Â
Those 4-days in March will be here before we know it…Â
If you are on the Free NTF List then my 2025 Cheltenham Festival Guide will drop with you shortly…
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Cheers – Ben (NTF)
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p.s. make sure you check out the weekly Racing Podcast – The Racing PodBlast – that I produce with my good pal Tony Mac… there’s a new episode available every Friday and it’s only ever 20-minutes long 😎
Spot on with GA Law. What I love about the horse is that he’s super consistent. Off OR152 he’s right there over 2m5f.
Absolutely Ian. Extremely consistent when he gets his Prime Conditions and OR 152 is a cracking mark for them to gun for a big handicap… 2nd in the Paddy Power this season off OR 155, with only the well-handicapped Il Ridoto (who also had a 3lb claimer helping) too good for him… the run from GA LAW in the Denman Chase also smacked off one to just get his mark shuffled down a little…
Ben (NTF)