Alex Hammond's blog and betting tips for the weekend's horse racing
Sky Sports Racing's Alex Hammond fancies Good Effort this weekend while she looks back on a trip to Ireland and last weekend's feature racing at Ascot.
1. Riders Onthe Storm and Copperhead emerged from Ascot with great credit last week – but could their hard races in deep ground be detrimental towards their Cheltenham claims?
Goodness me, wasn’t Riders Onthe Storm a shrewd purchase? He cost his new connections just £50,000 in May last year and he’s now won all three starts for his new trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies including Saturday’s Grade 1 at Ascot. He’s improving at a rate of knots and despite his quirky personality, he is thriving for his new connections. He’s a 7/1 shot with Sky Bet for the Ryanair Chase at the Festival and the race he had on Saturday doesn’t worry me with regards his Cheltenham claims. There’s plenty of time for him to recover physically from those exertions and he’ll need to if he’s to take on the likes of A Plus Tard, who is 9/4 favourite for the race after his victory in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown over Christmas, where he beat Chacun Pour Soi. Copperhead is now 6/1 to win the RSA Chase and 9/2 to win the National Hunt Chase after his impressive win in the Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase. It seems he has surprised trainer Colin Tizzard, who had him marked down as a handicapper, but he is now clearly better than that. He looks a dour stayer though and the amateur riders NH Chase might be his best option at Cheltenham if the right jockey is available; all ground seems to come alike to him. I’m perplexed as to what happened to Sam Brown in the same race. I really fancied him for this, but he ran very flat and was pulled up. He’s out to 20/1 for the RSA and NH Chase, but if he gets his favoured soft ground and turns up at the Festival, I wouldn’t be writing him off just yet.
2. Have you learnt anything exciting from the pre-Festival press trips that have been going on in Britain and Ireland this week?
It’s the time of year that there is plenty of information flying around, so much so it is sometimes hard to process it all. There have been plenty of positive reports, but all that is in the public domain, so I probably learned more from my short holiday in Ireland. I was lucky enough to spend a few nights over there last week and it was a real privilege to visit the yards of John Kiely and Willie Mullins and take in the racing at Gowran Park on Saturday. In light of the win of Cilaos Emery in the Red Mills Trial Hurdle I now have a few pounds invested in him winning the Champion Hurdle (currently 5/1 with Sky Bet). He isn’t entered in the race, but I got the impression his trainer Willie Mullins would be happy to supplement him for it if he won at Gowran and win he did, in impressive style. To win easily in conditions that were challenging to say the least with heavy ground and a howling gale, takes some doing and in an open year he deserves to take his chance. Another stunning performance came in the closing mares’ bumper. Gordon Elliott paid £160,000 for Queens Brook after her point to point win and it looks like money well spent. She galloped the opposition into submission to win easily on her Rules debut and whilst her trainer said she won’t be going to Cheltenham, Aintree could be on the cards and she’s one to note going forward.
3. Who should we have on the radar for this Saturday’s feature meetings at Lingfield and Kempton?
I have a short-priced double for you at Lingfield where I expect to see Good Effort win the Hever Sprint Stakes (7/4 favourite) and Bangkok the Winter Derby (8/11 favourite). I’m a huge fan particularly of the latter who looked awesome when winning the Winter Derby Trial for Andrew Balding and Rob Hornby. Hornby has to sit on the side-lines on Saturday as King Power Racing’s retained jockey Silvestre de Sousa is back from his winter stint in Hong Kong. That’s a shame for Hornby as he got a real tune out of the colt, but SDS will be delighted to get back on board this lad. He’s a superstar with an exciting season to look forward to and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win a group 1 before the year is out.
At Kempton, I hope to see Colin Tizzard’s Reserve Tank back in the winner’s enclosure after he was beaten at odds on at Newbury on his last start back in November. He’s 2/1 favourite with Sky Bet to win the Pendil Novices’ Chase with the drop back to two and a half miles ideal. Solo is a fascinating runner for Paul Nicholls in the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle. We show plenty of decent French racing on Sky Sports Racing and this week our French racing expert Laurent Barbarin gave this fellow a positive mention. He makes his UK debut in this Grade 2, so Nicholls obviously hopes to fly high with him. He’s 13/8 for Saturday’s race and currently 14/1 in a red-hot Triumph Hurdle. Sky Bet sponsor the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle and I’m keen on their 11/2 third favourite Highway One O Two. I was at Plumpton when he won his second novices’ hurdle and it was a good performance giving weight to all his rivals that day. His trainer Chris Gordon holds him in high regard, and I hope he can enhance his reputation in this.
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