Not a great start to the week"s fun. 6 races, 6 bets, sod all in return. In order, my selections came 2nd,2nd,3rd,5th,5th and 3rd. Ho hum, here"s tomorrow"s lame donkeys:
1) 1.30 National Hunt Chase. I"ll start with Presenting Forever who"s first run over fences (3miles 3 furlongs at Sedgefield) resulted in a 52 length victory which he then followed with a 2nd to subsequent winner Wogan. Also has the assistance of one of the better jockeys in Ollie Greenall so at 16-1 looks well worth a shot
2) Neptune Investment Novices Hurdle. Discussed in one of my previous posts - Peddler"s Cross for me in this one.
3) RSA Chase. I"m not convinced by the jumping of main market rivals Long Run and Diamond Harry, so I"ll stick with Punchestowns
4)Queen Mother Champion Chase. The only question here is how far Master Minded will win by. Even at slightly odds-on I think he represents value
5) Coral Cup. Ouch, I think my brain hurts trying to think my way around this one. I"ll probably go for Silverhand at 33-1. Silverhand is rated 102 on the flat and finished his season on the level by following a second place in the Irish Cesarewitch with victory in a listed race. As his only previous start over 2 and a half miles over hurdles was on heavy ground and he improved through the flat season, he is potentially unexposed
6)Another nightmare race to assess. I"ll plump for Bothy who has won 3 from 3 over hurdles, all by relatively narrow margins, so could be difficult for the handicapper to assess accurately
7) Champion Bumper. In previous years I"ve profitably employed a system which involved backing the biggest-priced of Willie Mullins" entrants. This year I"m trying something a bit different. Al Ferof won an Irish point-to-point then ran in 2 bumpers winning the second. Paul Nicholls then acquired him before he went on to win the most competitive bumper this side of the Irish Sea all year apart from the Champion. What I think is particularly significant is that presumably Ruby Walsh could have elected to ride one of Willie Mullins" contenders but he has chosen to ride Al Ferof.
No winners from that lot and I"ll probably hide in a cave for the final 2 days of the festival.
