German-breds at Musselburgh

with Cheltenham off, today´s main meeting is now at Musselburgh, which sees the start of Channel 4 ´s new racing programme with the wonderful Clare Balding as presenter. An interesting feature of the racing is the number of German-breds running and we hope to see success for at least one of them.
Main event is the 2 mile handicap hurdle at 15.45, where Fährhof-bred Cool Baranca (Dianne and Liz Sayer) runs, but he is only an outsider here. The lightly-raced Swing Bowler (David Pipe/ Conor O´farrell) and Amok (Tim Vaughan/ Aidan Coleman) are the likely favourites here, and the former is unbeaten after winning two bumpers and twice over hurdles; the handicapper must have found it difficult to assess this pair, but we convinced that they can conquer some battle-hardened rivals. Brian Ellison clearly wants to win this, as he saddles 4 runners, and we like both Dontpaytheferryman (Kyle James)- a real CD specialist so his poor form at other tracks must not be taken too seriously - and Ultimate (Danny Cook), only narrowly beaten when fifth in a tight finish here last time.
David Pipe sends 3 more runners on the long journey to Scotland, two of them with good chances - E Street Boy (Conor O´Farrell) in the handicap chase at 15.15, and Home Run (FJ Hayes) who has top-weight in the handicap hurdle at 16.20. Regular readers will now that we have tipped Home Run, bred by Gestüt Ammerland and a close relation to Hurricane Run, the last 4 times that he has run- and he won all four times within the space of less than 4 weeks. We do not know much about his jockey, a 10 lbs claimer, but Home Run has won his races under claimers, and despite a penalty of a stone for winning twice since Boxing Day (!), he can win again.
Two more German-breds here are Quadrata (Tim Vaughan/ Aidan Coleman) in the opening novice hurdle at 13.35, and our old friend Los Nadis (Jim Goldie/ Graham Watters) in the handicap hurdle over 3 miles at 14.40. Los Nadis´ recent form is not that great, but he loves this track and we expect him to run a big race today. We made a favourable note of Quadrata last time at Folkestone , although he was beaten a long way, and this shorter trip and better ground will surely suit him well.
The other race we would like to mention is the maiden hurdle at 14.20 at Fakenham, with some very interesting recuits from the flat. Edmaaj (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy), The Tiger (Ed Dunlop!/ Paul Moloney) and Watered Silk (Lucy Wadham/ Robert Thornton) were all multiple winners on the flat, but none of them was a patch on Chabal (John Ferguson/ Denis O´Regan), who was group class for Godolphin in 2010. He has not run since, but Fergusdon does extremely well with his ex-flat horses over hurdles and Chabal is our best bet of the day.

Betting forecast Musselburgh:
1. Race: Jonny Delta - Rockawango - Cayman Islands
2. Race: Lets Get Serious - Swift Arrow - Niceonefrankie
3. Race: Imperial Vic - Lord Wishes - Monetary Fund
4. Race: Pena Dorada - Exotic Man - Dystonia`S Revenge
5. Race: Swing Bowler - Call Back - Agent Archie
6. Race: Phase Shift - Weetfromthechaff - Urban Kode