Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Doncaster today

A lot of racing today, but easily the best card is at Doncaster, where most of the top jockeys will be in action, including AP McCoy, who continues his farewell tour ; he was out of luck yesterday, but we certainly expect him to ride some winners today, with John Ferguson possibly supplying him with his best rides - Devilment in the 4yo hurdle at 15.55 and debutant Bengo in the bumper at 17.55. McCoy partners Burton Port for Jonjo O´Neill in the veterans chase at 16.25, and this one is certainly of interest as he is being aimed at the Grand National; so is Alvarado (Fergal O´Brien/ Paul Moloney), who has not run since running on well to finish fourth at Aintree last year and was today Pricewise´s tip for this year´s edition. Burton Port ran badly last time, but with the stable now in good form, we expect him to do mich better today although he actually finished behind Aachen (Venetia Williams/ Liam Treadwell) imn this race last year and the latter is now better off. German-bred Neck or Nothing (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson)made a couple of jumping errors when only fourth over this CD last time; if he jumps better today he must have decent prospects in the opening novice hurdle at 15.20. Another German-bred we hope runs better today is Dawn Twister (Lucy Wadham/ Leighton Aspell) in the handicap hurdle at 16.55; this is a very tricky race, wkith the O´Neill/ McCoy contender Milan Bound one of several with a chance.