Racing Nerd

Before looking ahead to today's action, I must mention the performances of Epatante and Monkfish that lit up Saturday's racing. I think Epatante is now starting to get the credit she deserves, possibly delayed as a result of her blip at Cheltenham in 2019 and the perceived lack of quality in last year's Champion Hurdle. I know, personally, I felt she may be vulnerable to one of the young pretenders this year but based on early season form, she will be very hard to beat in March. Monkfish may have only won a Beginners Chase, but it was the manner of his victory and the exuberance of his jumping that impressed me. I have been harping on about the Albert Bartlett form from last season for quite a while now and Monkfish, in particular, looks potentially an even better chaser in the making.  Moving onto Sunday and while the quality of horse on view is not in question, the Graded races do not present a betting opportunity. I will be a very interested spectator and look forward to

Yesterday saw a cracking renewal of the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury. While, Thyme Hill was impressive and I felt at the start of the year he was the main contender for the Stayer's hurdle, Paisley Park put himself firmly on the comeback trail and with Cheltenham playing to his strengths, he will go very close in March. Shiskin was incredibly impressive from a jumping point of view on Monday although he really only beat a conservatively ridden Mick Pastor so there is no substance to the form and the Supreme is yet to be really franked like the other novice hurdles at last year's festival. A cracking weekend ahead once again and the ante-post markets are starting to really take shape. I love this time of year with all the top horses reappearing and plenty to review from a week's action.  Moving onto today and I just found the Ladbroke Trophy too difficult. Staying handicap chases wouldn't be my strongest area and I tend to avoid unless I think there is something obvio

In the last week, we have definitely seen plenty of Cheltenham hopefuls strut their stuff. In particular, I was very impressed by both Ferny Hollow and Bob Olinger on their hurdling debuts yesterday. I will be surprised if both don't feature prominently among the top novices this season. What an embarassment of riches Cheveley Park have and their biggest problem could be trying to split Ballyadam and Ferny Hollow!! From last weekend at Cheltenham, one to keep an eye on might be Simply The Betts if he steps up in trip as to my eyes he appears to be crying out for it at this stage. Finally in the weekly review, I thought Saint Roi enhanced his Champion Hurdle claims last week as it was an improvement on his previous form. Some were disappointed he didn't win but he was stepping into an open Grade 1 for the first time and literally everything went wrong in the race. I was impressed with what he found after coming under pressure and at the moment he looks the main danger to the rei

The National Hunt season is in full swing now and the horses at the head of the antepost lists for March are appearing virtually every day. The Cheltenham November meeting has been a great meeting in terms of finding Festival winners (as highlighted previously here) and this year should be no different with the meeting full of horses with huge ability. However, they may not all be at their peak this weekend and quite often it is the beaten horses, while running well, that feature in March. It was clear for all to see that Easysland falls into that bracket. He was obviously hindered by the race conditions but he ran a race that screamed of a prep and I imagine he will be very hard to beat come the Festival despite being beaten yesterday. Does He Know was very impressive in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle trial but I don't think he will trouble some of the Irish contingent currently heading that market. Looking at today's card and we have a high quality juvenile hurdle as well as po

This weekend is probably the weakest card in terms of jumps quality we will see throughout the month of November but there are still a couple of nice betting opportunities and plenty of horses that are worth a watching brief. Before we get on to today's action, I was mightily impressed by a couple of horses in the last week. Allmankind was immaculate on his chasing debut yesterday. Personally, I haven't seen a novice jump as good as that ever first time of asking (perhaps with the notable exception of Footpad). He would make an Arkle a very demanding test of quick and accurate jumping with his free-going style and while it is very early to think how a race will pan out, it is important to bear in mind when looking at possible Arkle candidates. Certainly, they would not want to have any doubts in that department. I was perhaps even more taken by Nicky Henderson's Dusart who beat a descent sort in Soaring Glory on his racecourse debut at Newbury. It is a course that Nicky lik