Sky Sports Racing's Alex Hammond has plenty of horses to follow for this weekend and beyond in her latest blog.
Katate Dori beat warm favourite Hyland by 15 lengths in last weekend's feature handicap at Kempton - what do you make of that pair going forwards?
Katate Dori was impressive, and Hyland wasn’t, despite staying on from the rear to claim an unlikely looking second spot. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the winner only had 10 stone 5lb, resulting in Charlie Deutsch having an almost invisible saddle, whilst Hyland carried 11 stone 13lb. Despite those metrics Hyland never got into a flow with his jumping, and he’ll need to be sharper and slicker than that to figure in top quality races in the future. Having said that the National fences are softer nowadays and he appears to have plenty of stamina. He’d taken well to chasing and that may have been a blip, but he’d need to sharpen up for my liking. Katate Dore has been put up 12lb by the handicapper which he should be competitive off in whichever handicap chase Sam Thomas chooses to run him in.
Which of the three Grade 2 winners on the same Saturday card - Rubaud, Mambonumberfive or Tripoli Flyer - impressed you the most?
For the long term I’d say Mambonumberfive. He cost €450,000 in the summer from France having shown ability in three starts for Francois Nicolle. He’s a big horse and the fact he didn’t instantly adapt to British racing when pulled up in the race at Cheltenham won by East India Dock clearly wasn’t a problem. This was much more like it and the fact he’s able to do this at his age, given that he’s a long term chasing prospect, is impressive. He’s in the Fred Winter and off that performance has claims in a wide open race. He’s 12/1 for that with Sky Bet.
Some competitive racing coming up at Doncaster and Newbury this weekend, do you have a name or two to note?
I’m hoping that Jurancon takes up his engagement at Newbury in the two mile handicap hurdle at 3.05pm, rather than in the Morebattle at Kelso on the same day. He should be competitive off his mark of 127 on handicap debut and he’s gone well at the track on two previous starts here.
Leader In The Park is a horse whose career I’ve followed closely. The seven year old made an underwhelming start to his chasing career at Cheltenham but has won both starts since and he holds an entry in Newbury’s 2m 7 ½ furlong Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase at 2.30pm. He’s another with a Kelso engagement and I’ll follow him wherever he turns up.
The Greatwood Gold Cup is Saturday’s feature at Newbury and Coral Gold Cup winner Kandoo Kid is amongst the entries. He’s a leading contender for the Grand National but this would be a cracking pot to win enroute to Aintree. It’s shaping up to be a superb race though, so I’m not nailing my colours to the mast until we see who is in the final field.
Mr Bramley is another lovely young horse with a bright future and he’s in the two and a half mile handicap hurdle at Newbury whilst also holding an entry at Kelso.
The Grimthorpe is Doncaster’s feature with a strong entry for this 3m 2f handicap chase. White Rhino is a horse I like, and it was a shame to see him depart early when upped to grade 1 company in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton over Christmas. Prior to that he’d won both his starts over fences in handicap company and there should be much more to come from him as a staying chaser as he’s a big horse who is probably only coming to himself now. He’s a 6/1 shot with Sky Bet for Saturday’s contest.
And what wins the Morebattle Hurdle up at Kelso?
There’s a lumpy £100,000 bonus for any horse than wins this race at Kelso and goes on to win a race at the Cheltenham festival so the eye is immediately drawn to anything trained by Emmet Mullins as he pulled off the feat with The Shunter in 2021. He won this and then the Plate Handicap Chase at the festival that year, which was a brilliant piece of placing. Vischio is his entry in Saturday’s contest, and the mare also holds entries in the Coral Cup, County Hurdle and Martin Pipe. She’s not unexposed with sixty runs under rules to her name, but she’s unexposed for Mullins who has only had her for the most recent of those runs.
She’s not alone in holding entries for Cheltenham races, there are a raft of them but when Emmet aims at a target, it’s not often the bullseye is missed.
The ground at the time of writing is good to soft, soft in places and if it doesn’t deteriorate too much then Tellherthename is one I’d be happy to have on my side. He’s a classy horse and at the age of six will be having his first start in handicap company. He made his debut for Jonjo and AJ O’Neill in the Fighting Fifth behind Sir Gino and this is his first run since that race back in November and he does go well fresh. He was well regarded by his former trainer Ben Pauling, and he should be capable of operating off a mark of 137. He’s 6/1 on Saturday and 16/1 for the County Hurdle next month.
The weights have been unveiled for Cheltenham... who catches the eye?
We were chatting in the Sky Sports Racing studio the other day about this topic and one name that popped up was Hot Fuss. He’s 33/1 with Sky Bet for the Fred Winter and whilst the consensus wasn’t that he’s a good thing at Cheltenham, he could run well at a decent price. His trainer Tom Dascombe has taken an unusual route with him though as he won a decent handicap on the all-weather at Southwell on Winter Derby day over two miles on Saturday but prior to that he had shown an aptitude for hurdling in his three runs over timber. He was only four lengths second to East India Dock on his hurdling debut at Wincanton back in October and his Southwell win shows he’s in great form.
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