Tuesday Talking Points | Matt Brocklebank highlights three things to watch out for
Matt Brocklebank highlights three trainers worth keeping an eye on including a back-to-form Owen Burrows.
1. Burrows making up for lost time
Patience is presumably one of the many attributes that first attracted those in charge at Kingwood House Stables to Owen Burrows in the autumn of 2015.
He was the only person interviewed for the role to be retained trainer to Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s horses heading into the 2016 campaign, and he’s carried himself well in the intervening months, without quite being able to deliver a real, standout stable star – Massaat's Group Two Hungerford win last August is the highest-profile success since he took charge.
This season has posed new challenges, Burrows sending out just 12 runners through what would normally have been a busy month of August due to a bug in the yard.
That featured a fortnight of complete shutdown but five winners from 16 runners at 31 per cent so far in September suggests the stable is not only emerging from the gloom, but really starting to flourish heading into the autumn.
One suspects the end of the Flat season could come at a bad time for Burrows, but he’ll have a huge number of beautifully-bred horses to get out onto the track in the next month or so and the entries for this week look promising, including Saturday’s Ayr winner Mafaaheem in the bet365 Cambridgeshire - or its consolation race - at Newmarket this weekend.
As for today, Burrows sends out four Chelmsford runners, all of which merit a second look. The pick of the bunch could be returning four-year-old Akhlaaq, who has had a long break and been gelded since his last public outing last June.
Highly regarded as a youngster, he's been quite keen in the past so the fitting of a hood makes sense and stall one should allow Jim Crowley to take up a good early position in the Irish Lotto At totesport.com Handicap.
If the ability remains, first time out – with the yard in form – might just be the time to catch this son of New Approach.
2. Value siding with Pears
Ollie Pears has plundered over £80,000 of prize money at Beverley over the decade he’s been training and while his overall strike-rate at one of his local tracks now stands at just 11 per cent (15-136) in the past five season, following his horses blind on the Westwood would have produced £45.25 profit to a £1 level stake over the same period.
It's Beverley’s final meeting of the year and Pears fires a twin-pronged attack with runners in both divisions of the Season Finale Handicap over the extended mile.
The trainer will be thankful he’s legging up Andrew Mullen on Placebo Effect in division two, having partnered the three-year-old in the Leger Legends event at Doncaster recently, but it's Amity Island who appeals more in the first instalment.
As a Southwell winner he probably found the ground too lively at Hamilton last time and he'd shown enough when staying on for third at Thirsk the time before to suggest he can pick up races on turf.
3. Winter is coming - brace yourself
As one season closes, another opens with the first fixture of the embryonic National Hunt campaign at Warwick.
Regular early-starters Dan Skelton, Nigel Twiston-Davies and Charlie Longsdon are all present with runners, as is champion trainer Nicky Henderson, who will be expected to get the ball rolling with Full Bore in division one of the novices’ hurdle.
Henri Parry Morgan and The Young Master can trade stories of former glories ahead of the staying handicap chase, both having run in Grade Ones earlier in their career, but it’s Winter Lion in the same race who looks one to keep tabs on while the going remains good.
From left to right - Cap Soleil, the ‘Face that runs the place’ @brownjockey and our esteemed trainer #ReturnOfTheCap #TeamFOB pic.twitter.com/plUCE8GymI
— FergalO’Brien Racing (@FOBRacing) August 28, 2018
Increasingly active on social media, trainer Fergal O’Brien also broke new ground with the number of winners he had last season and has started this time around with winners in May (5), June (5), June (1), July (1), August (1), September (1) already.
There are some big days ahead for O’Brien this winter with the likes of Poetic Rhythm, Cap Soleil and Barney Dwan set to star, but Winter Lion – who has a spin on the Flat at York earlier in the month – is still open to improvement for his current yard and is just the type with whom his handler excels.
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