Silver’s ready to take gold
ALTHOUGH Ascot’s big pre-christmas handicap is only in its second year as the Racing Welfare Hurdle (3.35), the contest has history dating back to 2001 as ‘the Ladbroke’.
Therefore, it’s rich in statistics — the most relevant to finding our likely hero being:
■ Aged four to six with a run this season.
■ Between one and three victories over hurdles from a maximum of eight attempts.
■ Finished in the first three last time out.
■ Previously contested a handicap.
The 17-runner field is now reduced to three qualifiers — Charli
Parcs, Verdana Blue and Silver Streak.
The first two are trained by Nicky Henderson, who has won three of the last eight runnings.
However,
needs to post a decent performance to lose the tag of the horse who forced Barry Geraghty to miss Cheltenham Festival this year through injury.
He could do that one day but makes no appeal at the prices.
is in cracking form but looked one paced at this track two starts ago, so the preference is for Evan Williams’s
Lines of form leave the four-year-old with plenty to find today, but he has room for bags of improvement and a real turn of foot.
Have 4pts win at 6-1 with Ladbrokes.