Grand National-winning trainer Lucinda Russell might be left with even more to celebrate at Kelso this afternoon, hopes our hunter chase 'expert' Will Hayler.
0.5pts Hey Listen in 4.40 Kelso at 7/2 (BOG)
This is not the day to be going to war with the bookies. Much as it's great to see the return of racing action at Windsor and Redcar, two tracks I have a soft spot for very different reasons. I've no great punting record at either though, so will enjoy watching the action with a view to picking up some future clues rather than chucking good money after the bad that went one way at Aintree last week.
I can't say I didn't enjoy Aintree though, especially as I've never been able to find anyone who doesn't like Lucinda Russell and it was great to watch the spark flickering between her and Scu afterwards. Theirs is truly a relationship where they were made to complement each other.
I absolutely love the Grand National, but not for the first time I can't help but wonder for how much longer it will be allowed to continue having 40 runners. You have to judge these things based upon what seems right now, as opposed to how things seemed 20 years ago.
I don't think the changes made to the race in the last five years have noticeably weakened its public perception among non-racing fans, or the love felt for the race by those within the sport. Would reducing the field to 35 or even 30 really make that much of a difference, other than reducing the risk of horses being brought down, or perhaps even falling in the first place? It's just a personal view, of course.
Back to Russell and having to drive all the way back up the M6 on Saturday night prevented her from joining her stable staff at the party at their local pub, but hopefully she'll at least have had time to put her feet up for five minutes over the weekend and reflect.
The racing wheel doesn't stop turning though, and it's on to Kelso for the stable today with seven runners.
Will Hey Listen win the Bucchleuch Cup at 4.40? I can't offer a full appraisal as to the worth of the five-year-old's latest victory in a maiden point at Friars Haugh, but he beat a couple of representatives from the usual yards one would have expected to contest such an event like Jimmy Walton and Vic Thompson, and he's considerably less exposed than many of today's rivals.
Five Piers finished in front of a decent yardstick in Things Change when second in a Restricted point last time out and he has come back from a break in decent form, so looks an obvious threat.
But I was quite taken by a quote I read from Russell yesterday that for her father, Peter, who owns Hey Listen, winning the Buccleuch Cup would be "his Grand National". I just wonder if it might be worth a pound or two on a stable clearly in such good form notching 'the double' today.
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Posted 1000(BST) on 03/04/2017
