Eyecatching weekend entries at Newbury and Warwick

IKARAK (Anthony Charlton)

1.30 Newbury – Betfair Serial Winners Fund Handicap Hurdle

The French import IKARAK has done well since moving to Britain and while things didn’t really pan out for him when sent off at just 6/1 for a competitive handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, I reckon he’s worth giving a pass.

Ikarak wouldn’t be the first horse who had done plenty of racing around Auteuil to find Cheltenham’s undulations a bit too much to handle, and that’s possibly underlined by his victories on these shores coming at Worcester and Newcastle – two flat, left-handed track which place emphasis on galloping rather than a tactical change of speed.

With that in mind, Newbury’s three-mile contest this weekend looks tailormade and he gets another shot back in a handicap off a 1lb lower mark than when last seen. One suspects there’s more to come from him yet and I'll want him on side if lining up.

DONNACHA (Nigel Hawke)

1.45 Warwick – RacingTV.com Handicap Hurdle

3.15 Newbury – Betfair Hurdle

Hard to boil the Betfair Hurdle down to just the one at present, given the strength in depth, but DONNACHA has been a horse I’ve been championing for a while and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s aimed here or takes up a softer engagement at Warwick instead.

Either way, this horse has been brought along steadily by trainer Nigel Hawke and is rewarding connections this season, having won two of his four starts and been placed a couple of times at Cheltenham in November and December as well.

The switch to more patient tactics back-fired two starts ago but he still ran a belter when third behind Go Dante and Doddiethegreat and he’s since picked up a confidence-boosting win in a lower grade (replay below). He looked to beat the ‘right horse’ that day in the similarly unexposed Klitschko, and a subsequent 2lb rise for what was ultimately quite a comfortable victory looks lenient.

A step up to two and a half miles will no doubt be in the offing at some stage, considering his stout pedigree, but he’s clearly effective over the minimum trip for now and I love his prominent run-style for a race like the Betfair Hurdle as they can often go a muddling gallop, in spite of the large field.

Ito Ditto, L’Eau Du Sud and Spirit D’Aunou are also on the shortlist at this stage but Donnacha is potentially over-priced around 25/1 and he could remain so even after he’s declared for the big one, which I’m hoping will be the case on Thursday morning.

STORM CONTROL (Kerry Lee)

3.30 Warwick – Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase

Kerry Lee does exceptionally well with the small string at her disposal and sent out half a dozen winners from just 26 jumpers during December and January. She’s one from two runners so far in February too so it’s fair to say the yard is going well and STORM CONTROL looks interesting this weekend.

Granted, he’s probably not the horse he once was but he won’t have to be to win this veterans’ chase from a reduced handicap mark on Saturday.

He showed enough first time back from a year out at Cheltenham last month, before weakening late on, to suggest he can still be competitive at the right level and, eased another 3lb to 126, he’s now 6lb lower than when last successful.

Warwick is a great track for prominent racers and he won’t mind the forecast rain either as he goes on any ground.

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