Haydock and Taunton

Haydock also stages an excellent card today with several races billed as Cheltenham trials, including the Grade Two Champion Hurdle Trial at 15.40 CET. To be honest, none of these 6 runners would appear to have a chance in the real thing, but ex-French Ptit Zig (Paul Nicholls/ Daryl Jacob) looks pretty smart and ran an excellent race on his U.K. debut before Christmas at Ascot. A repeat of that form would be enough to see him score here, with Melodic Rendezvous (Jeremy Scott/ Nick Scholfield) the only serious danger. Earlier Ptit Zig had bearen Un temps Pour Tous (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore) in a valuable race at Auteuil, and that one afterwards changed hands for an amazing 450,000 GBP. He makes his British debut here in the Grade Two novices hurdle here at 15.05; obviously there are high hopes for him, but he meets two very promising opponents here in Zamdy Man (Venetia Williams/ Aidan Coleman), closely related to Lando, and Stand To Reason (Nicky Henderson/ Barry Geraghty).
The best betting race here is the Grade Two Peter Marsh Chase, a limited handicap over 3+ miles at 16.15. Merry King (Jonjo O´Neill/ Richie McLernon) and Vintage Star (Sue Smnith/ Ryan Mania) were 5th and 6th in the Welsh Grand National. Merry King is now better off and should confirm that form, but it was a very hard race only 3 weeks ago. We prefer Katenko (Williams/ Coleman), who loves heavy ground, but so does Night Alliance (Dr. Newland/ Scudamore) who is amazingly improved this season and not out of it despite a rise of 30 lbs in the weights.
The Taunton card is much lower level than Ascot and Haydock. Our main fancy here is Brackloon High (Brendan Powell/ James Banks) at 14.40, who stays well and has form on the heavy, and Workbench (Dan and Harry Skelton) at 16.25, who would have won here last time but for making two terrible mistakes; if he jumps round safely he should get the better of Sound Investment (Paul Nicholls/ Ryan Mahon).

Betting forecast Haydock:
1. Race: Western Jo - Ugly Bug - Saphir River
2. Race: Trustan Times - Benvolio - Rival D`Estruval
3. Race: Taquin Du Seuil - O`faolains Boy - Knock A Hand
4. Race: Un Temps Pour Tout - Zamdy Man - Stand To Reason
5. Race: Melodic Rendezvous - Ifandbutwhynot - Act Of Kalanisi
6. Race: Katenko - Merry King - Vintage Star
7. Race: Garde Ville - Greensalt - Straidnahanna