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Saturday 31st October

There are many stars from previous seasons returning to our screens today with Cyrname, Delta Work, Samcro, Lisnagar Oscar amongst the many horses making their reappearances today. Perhaps even more interesting will be the prospect of seeing future stars, in particular the Cheveley Park trio at Down Royal of Quilixios, Ballyadam and Sir Gerhard. However, certainly in the case of the latter group, they will not be a betting proposition today. 

Instead, I feel one of the stars of last season, Delta Work, could be worth taking on in what his his seasonal reappearance. He has quite a poor record first time out and there is a long season ahead for him. In contrast, Chris's Dream, for the bang in-form Henry De Bromhead stable goes very well fresh and the best of his form would put him bang there. He ran well for a long way in the Gold Cup last year, despite being a little keen but his return in the Troytown last year was very impressive and he looked a Grade 1 performer on that occasion. The jury remains out on Presenting Percy for now until there is some evidence that the fire still burns and he usually improves for a run in any case. 

Over at Wetherby, the feature Charlie Hall is a little bit of a conundrum. For a staying chase, there seems to be stacks of runners who like to be on the pace and it could become quite a test. I am sure Cyrname will not be fully wound up and in any case he has a few questions to answer with the race conditions. It looks set for an upset to me but I couldn't make a strong enough case for one although Ballyoptic and the veteran Definitely Red should go well. An old favourite of mine, Wholestone goes in the preceding 3mile hurdle at 2.45 and I can't resist a small interest on him. He has been thoroughly consistent just below the top level over the past few seasons and his record on his seasonal reappearance reads 11411. Obviously the Stayers hurdle winner, Lisnagar Oscar, is the one to beat but I'm not sure about the quality of the others. I must admit I've never really been a big Roksana fan and she has never won at the trip. Lisnagar Oscar may be using the race as a stepping stone to bigger targets ahead as he has been quite weak in the market and he does have to prove that his shock win in March was not just an isolated moment in what has been an otherwise average CV to date. 


1pt win Chris's Dream (3/1 General) Down Royal 2.25 

0.5pt win Wholestone (6/1 General) Wetherby 2.45

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