Alex Hammond racing blog featuring tips for the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton
Sky Sports News' Alex Hammond looks back on last weekend's racing and ahead to Saturday's action in this week's blog.
It was a fairly quiet Saturday with a slight turn-up in the Tolworth – which horse would you take from that muddy spectacle with the future in mind?
Can I just say before we get stuck into the Tolworth; wasn’t the Welsh National an absolute cracker? We already know James Bowen is a precocious talent, but it made a great story that the 16-year-old jockey was only three years older than his winning mount Raz De Maree. Well done to Chepstow for rescheduling the race and getting it on against the weather odds. So, to the Tolworth Hurdle, the Sandown Grade One was won by 8/1 shot Summerville Boy for trainer Tom George and jockey Noel Fehily. My fancy Western Ryder was sent off favourite, but could only beat one of the five runners home. Although the Warren Greatrex-trained runner has won on heavy ground in the past (the official description of Saturday’s ground) the report from jockey Richard Johnson was that he didn’t handle the tacky ground. Any horse can be forgiven a bad run on ground like that, so he’s the horse I’m taking out of the race with the future in mind. He was fifth in the Champion Bumper at the festival last March, so good Cheltenham form, and the 16/1 available with Sky Bet for the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle (previously the Neptune) on the Wednesday of the festival could be the value each-way bet. Incidentally, Sky Bet went non-runner no bet on all the Cheltenham festival races this week.
We’re around the halfway point in the jumps season proper – what are your hopes and expectations over the sticks in 2018?
Like so many racing fans, I always fall into the trap of centering my universe around the Cheltenham festival, so I guess I’m hoping that most of the so called ‘big guns’ end up there in March. It probably annoys some people that so much emphasis is placed on those four days in early spring, but I start the countdown almost as soon as the marquees are dismantled after Gold Cup day. Speaking of the Gold Cup, it was disappointing to hear the news this week that Thistlecrack will miss the race for the second consecutive year. His trainer Colin Tizzard may well be saluting every magpie and avoiding walking under ladders when he thinks about his fragile stable star! So, no more Thistlecrack incidents please and more ‘Faugheen’s’ as we hear he is back on track for the Champion Hurdle. Did you listen last week when I flagged up his attractive price? He’s now back down to 3/1 with Sky Bet.
Nicky Henderson is around 1/2 fav for the NH Trainers’ Championship, but can Paul Nicholls or Willie Mullins muscle in on the picture yet?
The general consensus seems to be that Paul Nicholls doesn’t have enough top class firepower to vie for the title this season, but he went pretty close last term and was in the same situation with his horsepower then too. He’s the most realistic challenger to Henderson and is only around £10,000 behind the current champion at the time of writing. Mullins will have to win a fair chunk of the championship races to seriously challenge again as he is £1.2m behind Henderson; that is from just five runners/two winners though. He went mighty close in the 2015/16 season, giving Paul Nicholls a real fright, but you’d imagine if he has only had five runners in the UK so far and we are already into the second week of January, he has a bit of catching up to do.
Where’s the early value to be had in Saturday’s 32Red Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle at Kempton?
As usual this race is incredibly competitive with Sky Bet currently 6/1 co-favourites of three: Diese Des Bieffes (Nicky Henderson), Le Patriote (Dr Richard Newland) and River Frost (Alan King). All three trainers are in superb form at the moment. Henderson has another three entered, including leading contender William Henry, in this 2 mile 5 furlong handicap hurdle and also has Jenkins amongst the entries. It will be interesting to see who actually lines up, as I’m a fan of exciting novice Diese Des Bieffes. He looked to be crying out for a step up to this sort of trip when runner up at this track on Boxing Day over two miles in a decent novice hurdle. If he doesn’t run, then I’ll be on River Frost, although neither horses are superb each way value sadly and we may not be early enough. Having said that, I’ll take a 6/1 winner any day. Alan King’s runner returned to action in the Silver Trophy Handicap Hurdle at Chepstow in November where he ran a respectable race on his first start for five months. We haven’t seen him for another three months mind you, but that doesn’t concern me. Even though he has plenty of weight to carry on Saturday, he is still only six-years-old and there should be more to come from him this season.
What else catches your eye across the weekend meetings in Britain and Ireland?
In Ireland, I’m really looking forward to seeing who comes out on top in the Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown on Saturday. It looks like Getabird is going to line up for Willie Mullins and if he does he’ll be hard to beat even if he takes on Mengli Khan, who is on a retrieval mission having run out on his last start. As a grade 1 winner already, Gordon Elliott’s talented novice will have to give weight to Getabird and he needs to stay on track this time, which he didn’t do at Leopardstown over Christmas when running out through the wings with that grade 1 seemingly at his mercy. I have no idea what prompted that, he didn’t seem distracted by anything, so let’s hope it was a one off. Funnily enough, Getabird has also run out once in his career, in an Irish point to point back in March 2016. He hasn’t done much wrong since mind you. He won his second start in Irish points and was then snapped up by Mullins for 200,000 euros and now is in the Rich Ricci ownership. He has subsequently won two bumpers and his maiden hurdle last time out at Punchestown a month ago. The race on Saturday has been won by some smart horses over the years, many of them trained by the master Mullins, and this horse could join the roll of honour. He drops to 2 miles in this race, which shouldn’t be a problem and could determine which race he goes for at Cheltenham; he’s currently 10/1 for the Sky Bet Supreme (2m), 9/1 for the Ballymore (2m 5f) and 9/1 for the Albert Bartlett (3m).
Staying closer to home and Ballykan has slipped to an attractive looking mark, so could be one to keep on side in the 3 mile handicap chase at Kempton. He has decent form over this course and distance having finished 5th in the Betbright Handicap Chase last February off a mark of 140 and he’s off 134 for Saturday’s race. He’s no superstar, but ran a better race at Ludlow last time out and could be on his way back. Mind you, I’m probably not alone in thinking that as he’s now 6/1 with Sky Bet to win on Saturday.