Last day before Christmas

This is the last race day before Christmas in the U.K. (ireland as well) and the 3 cards are of very little interest. To be honest we would rather give the two all-weather meetings at Kempton and Wolverhampton a swerve and keep our powder dry for their big meetings on Thursday.

There is jumping at Bangor where the ground will be very testing and horses with recent winning form are few and far between. Two exceptions are Restraint of Trade (Jennie Candlish/ Peter Carberry) in the novice hurdle at 15.00 CET and Minella Bliss (James Evans/ Ben Poste) in the handicap hurdle at 16.00; the latter won over fences at the beginning of the month but is equally effective over sticks and stays extreme distances well. Restraint of Trade won twice on the flat for Godolphin this year and made a good debut over hurdles when third at Aintree in what was almost certainly a much better race than this one. An inzteresting each-way bet could be German-bred Quintano (Heatjher Daltpon and daughter) in the maiden hurdle at 15.30. He is from an excellent Fährhof family and being by Black Sam Bellamy, should handle the ground. He is probably not much good, but does not need to be to be placed in this company.