15:20 Catterick
Tuesday 28 February 2017
All14:2014:5015:2015:5016:2016:50
Easby Abbey Handicap Chase
- 5YO plus | Class 4 | 2m 3f 51y | Soft | 7 Runners | Turf | Weighed In
- Off time: 15:21 | Winning time: 5m 4.5s
Cloth number
Odds
Horse A-Z
Show odds
His last five wins have come in the Spring. Handicapper has dropped him to a more lenient mark but his two latest efforts suggest he is a long way from a return to the winner's enclosure. He was last in this twelve months ago.
Form of his Sedgefield win has taken some knocks and he has looked in the grip of the handicapper since. Drop in trip is a plus and he is in better shape than most of these.
Still looks on the right side of the handicapper judged by his easy victory at Market Rasen last time. All his wins have been on right-handed tracks but a placed effort at Lingfield suggests he should be ok here. Trainer and jockey remain in good form and the hat-trick beckons.
Found the trip and classier rivals beyond him last time. 4lb better off with Attimo for 4¼L than when sent off favourite on Boxing Day. Looks set to give a better account today.
Winning hurdler off today's mark last term on similar ground. Had an impossible task at the weights on his chasing debut a month ago (winner rated 132 and second 139). Sure to have learned a lot and interesting for a yard with four winners and seven seconds from 14 runners in the past two weeks.
Continues to defy the handicapper and picked up his fourth win of the season here last time. Yet to win beyond two miles and a line through Uno Valoroso gives him something to find with Attimo and Kilronan Castle.
Won a 3m Irish PTP in April 2016, and picked up by Sue Smith for £31,000 at Doncaster in May. Gets a 2lb pull with Halcyon Days for a head defeat here last time. Shaped that day as though he would improve for today's longer trip.
Forecasts
Nomoreblackjack (7/4), Kilronan Castle (9/2), Fields of Glory (9/2), Attimo (5/1), Halcyon Days (8/1), Cactus Valley (18/1), Edmund (33/1)
Tim Vaughan and Alan Johns have been operating at strike rates of 23% and 27% respectively over the past two weeks and FIELDS OF GLORY can add to that tally. He was not troubled to beat some exposed handicappers last time where he won with more in hand than the winning margin suggests. That form suggests he may still be a few pounds ahead of the pack. He faces dangers here in the shape of the improving Nomoreblackjack and Cactus Valley from the in form yard of Mick Easterby. Both look set to win races in this sphere before too long and a market move for either would make them even more interesting.
1. Fields of Glory
2. Nomoreblackjack
3. Cactus Valley
Prize Money
1st: £6,498.002nd: £1,908.003rd: £954.004th: £477.00
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