Thursday, December 13, 2012

3 poor meetings left

the jumps meetings at Huntingdon and Ludlow have been frozen off, but there is still N.H. racing in England at Taunton and in Ireland at Gowran Park. There is also flat racing on the all-weather this evening at Kempton.
We always like to follow the German-bred runners and at Taunton we like Home Run (David Piper/ Mr. K. Edgar) in ther handicap hurdle at 15.50 CET. Home Run, bred by Ammerland and trained last year by Peter Schiergen, won at Exeter last week, and as that was a race for conditional jockeys., has no penalty: He is ridden by a competent amateur who claims 10 valuable pounds. The main danger could be Key to Milan (Chris Down/ Giles Hawkins), who won over this CD 6 weeks ago. The novices limited handicap chase at 14.50 looks very tricky, with most of the runners having little fencing experience. We shall take a chance on Rajdhani Express (Nicky Henderson/ Sam Waley-Cohen), who seems well handicapped on his old hurdles form. He was beaten last time by Elenika (Paul Nicholls/ Daryl Jacob), who runs in the handicap chase an hour later. This is also tricky, even with only 5 runners, and we prefer Ciceron (venetia Williams/ Aidan Coleman), who is inconsistent but showed signs of coming back to form last time. Venetia also has a chance in the 3 mile handicap hurdle at 14.20 with Kahsabelle (Liam Ttreadwell), but here we prefer recent CD winner Okafranca (Jim Old/ Micky Grant) and especially the lightly-raced maiden Canadian Dreamer (Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies), who looks as if he will be suited by this longer distance.
Willie Mullins looks the trainer to follow at Gowran Park. Dougal Phillips could win the opening 3yo hurdle; he had quite useful flat form and is Ruby Walsh´s only ride of the day. Paddy Mullins rides his father´s other runners and can score on hurdling debutant Upazo at 14.05, Mozoltov at 15.05, a good bumper horse also making his debut over sticks, the frustrating Champagne Agent at 16.05, whio has been a beaten favourite in most of his races so far, and Super Mix in the bumper at 16.35. However all these are likely to start at very short prices.
At kempton this evening, we like Embankment (Willie Jarvis/ Jimmy Quinn) in the mile handicap at 18.30. This lightly-raced Juddmonte cast-off was trained earlier by Amanda Perrett but won his first race for his new trainer over this CD 3 weeks ago and looks as if he has plenty of improvement to come. Fellow 3yo´s Storm King (Jane Chapple-Hyam/ Richard Hughes) and Bank On Me (Chatrlie McBride/ Raul da Silva) look the main dangers.

Betting forecast Taunton:
1. Race: Guess Again - Jojabean - Johnny Red
2. Race: Okafranca - Elegant Olive - Sovereign Spirit
3. Race: Changing Times - Carrigmorna King - Rajdhani Express
4. Race: Buck`s Bond - Gas Line Boy - Willoughby Hedge
5. Race: Home Run - Todareistodo - Key To Milan
6. Race: Elenika - Ciceron - Marshal Zhukov
7. Race: Very Noble - August Hill - Fighter Jet