Out in sticks
Big Jim (5/1) and Clan Chief (6/4) have obliged from Jeremy Grayson’s last selection of potential next-time winners – here are this month’s suggestions.
Jeremy Grayson follows up his latest success with more hints
CATTERICK, JANUARY 1 ( SOFT) 1m7f156yds 0-110 Handicap Hurdle (class 4)
There’s certainly a case to suggest that ALIANDY could have been ridden a bit more forwardly on this handicap debut, especially around this tight, fast circuit and over a trip no longer even officially 2m in extent.There are definite positives to be taken from the exercise, however, notably a greater intention to settle and running at least up to a mark which hadn’t looked conspicuously generous beforehand.
Assuming enough is learned from this, both by rider and horse,Kim Bailey’s son of Presenting looks a realistic proposition to take a similar grade of contest,with neither a stiffer stamina test nor (given his sire) a drier surface likely to count against him.
AYR, JANUARY 2 (HEAVY, SOFT IN PLACES ON CHASE COURSE) 2m4f100yds Maiden Hurdle (class 5)
THE DUTCHMAN hadn’t looked as if the full 3m trip played completely to his strengths in either Irish Pointing start the previous winter, even when running to within a length of the winner on the second of those. Sandy Thomson’s decision to start him off over 2m4f at least initially over hurdles looks the right one on the evidence of a close second here (his immediate pedigree screams proficiency at this trip as opposed to further), as does the making more use of him than either of those starts between the flags. The Lambden handler’s much-improved and much-expanded string over the last couple of seasons is still small enough for placing of horses not to pose any sort of logistical headache, and a strike-rate of 6-17 over December and January increases optimism in this son of King’s Theatre being able to oblige when found the right sort of routine Northern maiden hurdle again next time out.
2m 0-105 Handicap Hurdle (class 4)
Running a 22lb superior rated rival to just over a length might not do MOLLY MILAN’s mark the world of good in the immediate term, but it’s probably more accurate to say that having been (in the event, rather charitably) dropped 10lb ahead of this first outing since July 2014 the now eight-year-old mare was an 83rated performer in name only anyway.Jim Goldie’s charge didn’t shape as if the race was needed, but an improvement can still be expected next time, assuming that future assignment comprises an outing back over the 2m4f trip that will most likely suit her better now.
Ground as quick as good didn’t seem to inconvenience her hugely in the past, and granted an extended run of fitness she may not prove altogether difficult to place.
3m67yds 0-140 Handicap Chase (class 3)
A slow-burning project for Nicky Richards, being a big weak thing that’s stood just 11 outings so far and taken time to strengthen up, a propensity to take the odd fence with him renders CULTRAM ABBEY still just a little shy of the finished product where chasing is concerned. This fast-finishing half-length second was the fairest result on the day, the nine-year-old son of Fair Mix having made mistakes and owing his ultimate proximity to the winning rider having to have ridden hands and heels over the final couple of fences. Options are increasing for him, however, this result the strongest indication yet that a chase win, when it arrives, should be gained over 3m-plus on deep ground.
MUSSELBURGH, JANUARY 4 (GOOD TO
SOFT, SOFT IN PLACES) 1m7f214yds 0-105 Handicap Hurdle (class 4)
Keeping QUILL ART to the minimum sort of trip for hurdles was perfectly understandable given the usual assumptions that the stamina of a 1m-1m2f pedigree Flat animal such as him correlates to an ability to stay 2m in this sphere but little further.
Richard Fahey’s son of Excellent Art may yet prove an exception, however, as the line was always coming too soon for the
challenge he’d wound up along the straight ever to get him there remotely on time.Not on an obviously generous mark, the suspicion remains that there’s a better performer than he’s been able to show to date waiting to burst out of the four-yearold, and a 2m4f 0-105 or 0-110 may provide the ideal platform.The jury’s still out on what may prove to be his optimum ground requirement over time.
HUNTINGDON, JANUARY 15 (HURDLES: SOFT, HEAVY IN PLACES. CHASE: HEAVY) 1m7f171yds NH Maiden Hurdle (class 4)
The formbook will give BRITANIO BELLO’s third hurdles outing as an eightlength third place, but the margin of defeat would have been far more emphatic had the 12l clear leader not crashed out horribly at the final flight.
A reluctance to settle hurt the Irish Wells five-year-old’s chances once again this time, as it has at least once previously, and his energies do look in some need of channelling more productively. Assuming he could respond positively to headgear of some description, however, Gary Moore’s gelding can be taken to outrun an initial mark that should not, all things being equal, be anything above the high-100s when next he is seen.
The minimum trip looks far enough for the time being, not with standing the presence of winners at 2m6f-3m as well as 2m in the immediate family.
2m7f129yds 0-105 Handicap Chase (class 4)
This cannot be the first time in over nine years of this column that attention has been drawn to the Jennie Candlish string just starting to emerge from a protracted slump, such appears to be the mercurial nature of the Basford Green handler’s fortunes.
Having drawn a complete blank for the second half of both 2012 and 2014, Tanarpino’s Catterick victory on January 14 was similarly Candlish’s first since July 2015, and a nine-length second for BASFORD BEN in this stayers’ chase looks indication enough that the son of Trade Fair is himself returning to the sort of form that should enable him to strike off what’s once again a very accommodating mark.
The repeated jumping out to the left here should be taken as less of an indication that this multiple Carlisle winner now prefers going anti-clockwise, and more one that the fences were probably coming at him too quickly around this fast track, even on such deep ground; any return to the aforementioned Cumbrian venue, where his record in 3m2f class 4 or 5 handicap chases reads 2111, should be taken very seriously.
WETHERBY, JANUARY 16 ( HEAVY, SOFT
IN PLACES)
2m3f154yds NH Novices’Hurdle (class 4)
Micky Hammond’s first booking of Aidan Coleman for at least five seasons, and pos--
Jennie Candlish’s string is just starting to emerge from a protracted slump, in keeping with the mercurial nature of the Basford Green handler’s fortunes