O Maonlai to hit right note at Newbury

O MAONLAI looks a player in the big race of the day at Newbury.

It all went wrong for the nine-year-old at Haydock on his last start in January, but that should not put anyone off too much as he tends to come alive at the Berkshire circuit.

Tom George has to work hard with O Maonlai as he is not a particularly easy horse to get right on a racecourse.

But Newbury is very much his bag, as he showed when winning the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Memorial Handicap so handsomely in November.

Despite having been off the track since May, he glided into contention before readily accounting for Warriors Tale by five lengths.

He was then sent into battle for the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock, but he could never get serious under Adrian Heskin and was pulled up in the soft ground.

O Maonlai was, however, not the only horse to have been overawed by Bristol De Mai that day so that run can easily be forgotten as he reverts to a more suitable course and distance.

The handicapper certainly feels that way, at any rate, as he remains on a mark of 143 for the William Hill-sponsored Greatwood Gold Cup.

There is a suspicion he still has a lot more to give over fences, though, so that weighty issue might not be the end of the world, either.

His trainer has given O Maonlai a nice break - a ploy that has worked so successfully with him in the past after Haydock and, with no fancy entries, this could be his big day.

Similar thoughts apply to Looking Well, who should be trained to precision for the BetBright Grimthorpe Handicap Chase at Doncaster.

Trained in Cumbria by the in-form Nicky Richards, this unexposed eight-year-old raised a few eyebrows in the Sky Bet Chase at this track last month when he stayed on purposefully to take second spot behind Ziga Boy.

That was a terrific run under the circumstances, with everything he has done so far suggesting this extra quarter of a mile will be made to measure from the foot of the weights.

Good racing at Kelso, where Mount Mews can cut loose in the totescoop6 Premierm Kelso Novices’ Hurdle.

Malcolm Jefferson’s sixyear-old impressed on his hurdling debut at this track

in December and has since won very convincingly in what was admittedly not a great race at Doncaster.

Jefferson is a big fan of Mount Mews, who still holds Cheltenham entries in the Supreme and the Neptune, and this hardly looks an epic renewal of the Grade Two.

Sea Of Flames could go off at a fair old price in the sunbets. co.uk Handicap at Lingfield.

The four-year-old chestnut was not a happy camper out in Dubai earlier in the year, but that is no way a true reflection of his worth.

David Elsworth’s inmate loves it at Lingfield, having done all of his winning in Surrey, so should always be feared in this sort of race.

Sea Of Flames won a Listed race over course and distance last April yet he is

now back on a double-figure mark after having ripped up few trees in the summer.

It would not be beyond the realms of possibility to expect him to claw his way back to form under Silvestre de Sousa.