Haydock and Taunton

back to earth today after the excellent sport of the past few days with only modest cards at Haydock and Taunton to keep us interested, plus the usual low level all-weather racing at Lingfield. Haydock has the better fields - although some of them are small- and two German-breds have caught our eye: Amore Mio (Lucinda Russell/ Craig Nichol) at 13.20 CET and Gauvain (Philip Hobbs/ Mr. Smith) who has top-weight in the veterans chase at 13.50. Gauvain (by Sternkönig) is an old friend of ours and we still remember his victory in the Grade Two Peterborough Chase 2 years ago. He has not won since and his recent form is poor, so he is down a lot in the ratings, but a return to anything hear his old form would see him go close here. The obvious danger is Baby Run (Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies), who ran a great race at Aintree recently after a break of 30 months; the 13yo is not certain to repeat that performance however as the bounce factor could come into play. Amore Mio is rather inconsistent, but clearly has a chance in a weak event. The best race at Haydock is the 3 1/2 mile handicap chase at 14.55; this will be quite a slog on the heavy ground, but the two top-weights are the obvious favourites - Across the Bay (Donald McCain/ Jason Maguire) - who finished 14th in the Grand National and is probably going to challenge for that race again, and Pete The Feat (Charlie Longsdon/ Noel Fehily), back to form last time at Fontwell and our selection. The Twiston-Davies runner Hunters Lodge and Bob Ford (Rebecca Curtis/ Tony McCoy) are the others to consider; the latter is running in his first handicap and could be very leniently weighted.
Philip Hobbs could also be on the scorecard at Taunton, as we fancy both Milosam (Tom O´Brien) at 14.10, much improved and twice a CD winner in November, and the penalised Horizontal Speed (Richard Johnson) at 14.45. Best bet here is As I Am (Don Cantillon/ Conor Shoemark) in the mares novice hurdle at 15.20; she has already won 6 races this year, 3 of them with this Jockey, and stands out in this company.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Cloudingstar - Amore Mio - Upbeat Cobbler
2. Race: Baby Run - Gansey - Gauvain
3. Race: Goohar - Dibdabs - Highpower
4. Race: Pete The Feat - Bob Ford - Herdsman
5. Race: Urban Hymn - Algernon Pazham - Howaboutnow
6. Race: Bobcatbilly - Supreme Asset - Presence Felt
7. Race: Dundee - Teochew - No No Bingo