Timeform Daily View | Monday preview and tips

By Nic Doggett

Horse Racing

Mon March 09, 2026 · 2d ago

Nic Doggett provides an overview of the key things to note on Monday.

Excitement building

Oh, I was only twenty-four hours from Cheltenham sang Gene Pitney in the ‘sixties, at least I think he did. Something like that anyway. And it’s old-school horse racing to the fore on Monday, with three National Hunt meetings, each with a race every half an hour. None of your 14:17 malarkey.

Stratford used to be the meeting for Irish-inspired gambles, but the options look worse than thin on the ground this year, with 0 (zero) Irish-trained runners in Warwickshire.

Surely there are some at Taunton? No. Plumpton? Nada. Wolverhampton, then. Nope. Nothing.

But that isn’t to say that the markets won’t prove informative, and it’s worth remembering that last year’s Stratford card featured three winning favourites and no winner priced at bigger than 8/1.

On everything he’s produced this season, you’d expect Colby Mayfield to go off a much bigger price than that in the snappily-titled DragonBet The Roar Before Cheltenham Dragonboosts Novices' Limited Handicap Hurdle (15:50), however he’s up markedly in trip for his handicap debut following three educational runs in decent novice/maiden hurdles. This half-brother to Bonn and Workahead is from the family of the very smart hurdler/useful chaser (stayed 3¼m) Classified and a mark of 84 could prove lenient, especially if the market agrees.

Jockey change of note

Talking of the 15:50 at Stratford, Gavin Sheehan’s jockey profile dashboard on Timeform shows that he is a rider to take particular note of when riding prominent racers, with his mounts outperforming the average (65% Run To Form) when getting on with things from the front.

The Jockey Uplift flag features on the 15:50 racecard with Sheehan taking over from Richie McLernon on the DJ Jeffreys-trained Ballyhiho. The six-year-old mare won at Worcester last August and was a good third at Southwell when last seen, form that has been franked by the winner Always A Reason going in again since.

Sheehan has only had five rides for Jeffreys in recent seasons, with a winner, a third, and two fourth-placed finishes a healthy return.

Ballyhiho is part-owned by Harry Redknapp who will be hopeful of starting a big week – which has The Jukebox Man’s Cheltenham Gold Cup run as its focal point – with a bang. And then he might be needed to keep Spurs in the league...

Willie Mullins & Patrick Mullins react to the Cheltenham moments which defined their careers!

History repeating?

Redknapp also has horses with Gary and Josh Moore who saddled three winners on Monday’s Plumpton card 12 months ago, and the father and son duo come into this year’s meeting on the crest of a wave following an excellent Saturday at Sandown which featured easy wins for Mondo Man (barring the final flight, that is) in the Imperial Cup and Ti’Mamzel in the listed bumper.

The Moores have a profitable 32% strike-rate at the East Sussex venue this season, with stable jockey Caoilin Quinn the leading rider there with eight wins from 22 rides. Perhaps it’s significant, then, that Quinn instead heads to Stratford for just one ride, on Love You Back in the opening juvenile hurdle.

Timeform’s weight-adjusted ratings suggest that the Moores could have a good day at Plumpton regardless, with Kotari only 3 lb off the top-rated Golden Circet in the Mayo Wynne Baxter Novices' Limited Handicap Hurdle (15:00) following a wind op and the lightly-weighted C&D winner All Authorized close behind Confinentic on the figures in the 15:30 and likely to appreciate this better ground as he moves back up in trip.

Over at Taunton – long since the domain of Paul Nicholls – the quality of racing on offer is a little higher, but, as at Plumpton, it might pay to look back to last year’s meeting which featured a double for Philip Hobbs & Johnson White.

The yard appears to have their sights set on the handicap chase at 15:40, with Royal Jewel and Kap Vert a pair of C&D winners representing the stable. The former is progressive but has climbed the handicap as a result, and the bigger player could be Kap Vert whose excellent record on right-handed courses (Horses For Courses flag here) gives him the edge following a good fourth in better company last time.

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