Friday, February 12, 2010

N.H. racing at Bangor and Kempton (both on!)

easily the most interesting race of the day will be the novice hurdle over 2 miles 5 furlongs at 15.35 CET at Kempton. Nicky Henderson´s Quantitativeeasing (Tony McCoy) is a class act, having won all his 3 starts with the greatest of ease, but faces stern opposition here from The Betchworth Kid (Alan King/ Robert Thornton), who was group class on the flat and has also shown talent over hurdles.

Phidippides (Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney) and Tocca Ferro (Emma Lavelle/ Jack Doyle) were both easy last-time-out winners but will probably have to be content with a minor placing behind the big two, who are likely to be Cheltenham-bound after this. The graduation chase here at 16.45 looks a match between Big Fella Thanks (Paul Nicholls/Ruby Walsh), who possbly needs further, and Duc de Regniere (Henderson/ Barry Geraghty), who has a good record here, and the latter´s team could finish off a good day by taking the 3 mile handicap chase at 17.20 with Polyfast, who won here over shorter at Christmas and looks the type to improve further.

At Bangor, the most interesting runner is the German-bred Foreman. Now a 12yo, he was top class in younger days and if anything is left of his old ability should not be troubled to win the hunter chase at 17.30 for Jonjo O´Neill and Alan Berry. It is certainly unusual to see German-bred half-brothers run in a British race, but that is the case in the handicap chase at 15.10, in which Peppertree Lane, now trained by Rebecca Curtis and amateur-ridden, must give a lot of weight to Salontyre (Bernard Llewellyn/ Isabell Tompsett) who slipped up on the flat when still going well last time. Prince Sabaah (Venetia Williams/ Sam Thomas) is a danger to both. Over Sixty (Alan King/ Wayne Hutchinson) should not be troubled to win the mares novice chase at 15.15 despite a double penalty, while otherwise it could pay to follow Donald McCain and his stable jockey Jason Maguire, who always do well here. We think their Will be Done, a useful chaser, can take the novice hurlde at 16.20 at the expense of Henderson´s Be There in Five (Andrew Tinkler), while Gershwinner has a chance in a very open stayers handicap chase at 16.55.

Later: good news- racing goes ahead at both Kempton and Bangor