Sky Sports Racing's Alex Hammond looks ahead to Saturday's card at Newbury and she's taking two against the field in the Betfair Hurdle.
Who’d have thought that the Newbury clerk of the course, Keith Ottersen, would have to contact trainers last week to explain that the ground for Saturday’s Betfair Hurdle fixture could have good to firm places in it, in the middle of February?!
He can water between March 1st and 30th November, but not outside that period, due to winter watering restrictions which are a condition of an historic licence enforced by the Environment Agency. Frost covers were laid on Sunday, and after a hard frost on Thursday night the ground is sure to be unseasonably fast. This fixture has been abandoned several times since its inception in 1963 due to waterlogging, but more commonly thanks to snow and frost, but not since 2009, so let’s hope all is well when those covers are lifted on Friday.
Sky Bet are offering six places in the Betfair Hurdle so it may pay to look away from 3/1 favourite Filey Bay, who has the bookies running for cover thanks to shrewd connections, comprising of trainer Emmett Mullins and owner JP McManus. Paul Nicholls has won the race twice in the past and is represented by novice RUBAUD and recent Cheltenham handicap hurdle winner Hacker Des Places.
JP McManus is also represented by last season’s Triumph Hurdle fourth Icare Allen who also comes over from Ireland for Willie Mullins. JP’s trio are made up by the Nicky Henderson trained No Ordinary Joe, who returned from over a year off to win at Kempton in December. Henderson first won this race back in 1998 and has lifted the prize five times in total.
Gary Moore has won this three times and has Teddy Blue and Yorksea in this year’s race. Monviel got hiked up 10lb for his Ascot win in November and hasn’t run since, so maybe Philip Hobbs has been saving him for this race. Nigel Twiston-Davies is also a dab hand in this race with three wins and he runs useful novice Master Chewy. Dan Skelton has made a happy habit of training plenty of Saturday winners and he saddles FAIVOIR who will be fitted with cheekpieces for the first time in a while. He’s dropped to an appealing handicap mark and ran a pleasing trial behind No Ordinary Joe at Kempton over Christmas. He has his quirks but is well capable of a bold show here.
Fewer trainers are in better form than Chris Gordon at the moment and he has Aucunrisque and Highway One O Two in the two-mile handicap hurdle. At this point I’ve almost highlighted every runner, but it would be remiss to leave out Tritonic who is a smart horse and has dropped to his last winning mark and will be fitted with cheekpieces for the first time. Last year’s winner Glory And Fortune has a 5lbs higher rating to deal with this time round. Sam Thomas is making a habit of successfully targeting horses at big races and he relies on Deere Mark, who is an improving novice.
So, I guess we’ve arrived at crunch time and which horse I’m going to side with. Going back to those six places on offer, I’m inclined to side with Faivoir each way and Rubaud at a shorter price (20/1 and 6/1 respectively with Sky Bet).
There’s no Jonbon in the Betfair Exchange Game Spirit Chase, Nicky Henderson has chosen instead to return to the scene of his chasing debut success for the Virgin Bet Kingmaker Novices’ Chase at Warwick, in which he should be hard to beat even giving weight away to his rivals. Greaneteen is 4/9 favourite to win the Game Spirit for Paul Nicholls and understandably so, and Jonbon is even shorter at 1/4 favourite, although there are a few offers available if you fancy taking a punt on how far he may win by (15/8 if he wins by ten lengths or more).
One offer that has caught my eye is Sky Bet’s three places rather than two, in the seven runner Betfair Denman Chase at Newbury. I have a sneaky suspicion that Does He Know could finish in the three and at 13/2 he is an each way price. He’s a bit of a funny character but comes here in form and is very talented. Trainer Kim Bailey hasn’t had a winner for a few weeks but his horses have been going close, so I’m not too concerned.
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