Tamaroc can shine on Ayr raid
TAMAROC Du Mathan can double his Grade Two tally with victory in the Jordan Electrics Ltd Future Champion Novices’ Chase at Ayr.
Paul Nicholls’ Pendil winner has been beaten only by the imperious Shishkin in his three novice-chase starts - and appears to have plenty in his favour on Sunday.
The lightly-raced six-year-old is set to face a stern test against likely favourite Allmankind, and two other very useful rivals.
But whereas Dan Skelton’s frontrunner is taking a shot at this trip of an extended two and a half miles as an alternative after failing to handle Shishkin in the Arkle, Tamaroc Du Mathan has already demonstrated that it suits him perfectly.
Both were beaten almost exactly the same distance by Nicky Henderson’s unbeaten chaser, and three-time Grade One winner, off level weights but on separate occasions this season.
Tamaroc Du Mathan, who had opened his account with an easy handicap win at Wincanton in November, was put in his place in the Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase at Kempton over Christmas.
But up in trip at the same course in February, he was well-supported and duly dominated a decent fourrunner field.
Nicholls, who has kept him to largely flat tracks, was not tempted by Cheltenham.
He also sidestepped Aintree last week in favour of this assignment and although Tamaroc Du Mathan has raced almost exclusively on right-handed tracks in just eight career starts over hurdles and fences, he outran odds of 50-1 to be beaten under two lengths in a big handicap at Newbury last year.
This weekend’s forecast good ground should be perfect for him.
The feature race at Ayr, on a day when Newbury also provides top-class Flat action, is of course the Scottish Grand National.
There is a notably strong home challenge in this year’s typically competitive renewal of the marathon.
But one big-priced contender who could be lurking on a very dangerous mark hails from just south of the border - despite a name which suggests otherwise.
The Dutchman’s letter-heavy form figures are not immediately enticing - but they are misleading, in that he is nowhere near as bad a jumper as they imply. Trained in Cumbria by the in-form Tristan Davidson, the 11-year-old was being targeted at this race 12 months ago until the pandemic hit.