What did you think of Western Hymn"s run Wayne? at this stage i"d be more inclined to favour Western Hymn and Kingston Hill for the Derby.. Western Hymn"s inexperience wouldn"t bother me to much as 3yo types like him can improve rapidly, and that turn of foot still smacks of class... Should be a interesting Dante....
Sennockian Star won nicely Wednesday, i love picking apart the class2 heritage handicaps
i was pleasantly surprised that no one latched on to the fact that he"d reverse the form with Clayton from the lto at Pontefract...
Sandown 3.50 - Gold Cup Chase
Hadrian"s Approach - 14/1 with WH and a couple of others.. 15.5 on Betfair 4.5 to be placed - 1point win 2point place on BF
reasoning/logic
Tricky race to pick apart but what swung it for me given conditions today was Hadrian"s Approach run at Newbury last year when only beaten a short head by Unioniste with Same Difference behind, HA made three mistakes in the straight at Newbury and was only beaten a short head and he had plenty left in the tank.
He has good stamina, he jumps, gallops and stays. He also has plenty of class being by High Chaparral and looks a good win-place bet imho. Sandown should suit him today, finished 5th in this race last year on good dround as a 6year old, had a break this year before Cheltenham which suggests to me that Henderson had this race as the initial target in mind....
The fitting of cheek pieces for the 2nd time might be a plus, focus in the later stages of a race can sometimes come at the cost of keenness in the early part when a horse is fitted with cheekpieces, it might make him a bit more alert in the early part of the race, but that"s no bad thing for this horse imho... I"d be surprised anyhows that Henderson hasn"t schooled him with them on,
this plus the fact i think NH has had this race in mind for HA was another tick in the box..
Geraghty on board isn"t a negative either lol............
