out in sticks
Jeremy Grayson casts his net far and wide to find us horses to follow away from the spotlight
Jeremy Grayson casts his net wide to find some winners
LUDLOW, 28 January (Good to soft, good in places)
3m1f125yds 0-120 Handicap Chase (Class 4) It’s a pity that Ludlow hasn’t as yet embraced the concept of “satellite” Nationals, for although HEY BILL can boast two chasing wins at the Shropshire venue at up to 3m last season, even the longer trip he encountered on this occasion (and raced up with the pace over) now appears inadequate. Immediate fortunes may now therefore lie elsewhere for Graeme McPherson’s nine-year-old grandson of a sister to one-time Irish National second Royal County Star, and the provision of 3m4f-plus and recourse to the usual assertive tactics can see him resume winning ways whilst remaining at or (currently 2lb) below his most recent winning mark. There doesn’t appear to be any reason to take him away from the good or good to soft ground of his best efforts to date.
NEWCASTLE, 29 January (Soft, good to soft in places)
2m6f Novices’ Hurdle (class 4) It would have been unthinkable before this term that SAM’S ADVENTURE could be sent off as big as 5-2 in any workaday northern novice hurdle based on his superb bumper form of 2016 and 2017 (three wins included the big sales event at Newbury, plus a short-head second doubly penalised), much less still be winless in this sphere after four attempts. A diversion through the wing of the last flight cost him victory at Kelso over Christmas, however, and an 11l fourth on this latest effort was the second time in the remaining three starts in which the Brian Ellison-trained seven-year-old paid for his disinclination to settle early. The impression remains that he’s a fair bit better as a hurdler than circumstances have enabled him to demonstrate up to now, and, tactically versatile when securing all those bumper successes, the Black Sam Bellamy gelding could yet stand being played more assertively over hurdles than has so far been the case. A goodquality handicap over 2m4f or beyond should prove the very least that’s achievable when all the basics are got right.
TAUNTON, 4 February (Soft)
2m7f198yds 0-120 Handicap Hurdle (class 4) It’s been a particularly thin season thus far for Claire Dyson, who’s still to get off the mark after 32 attempts. A first blank season in a decade for the Cleeve Prior stable could easily be avoided, however, assuming the third place of PASSAM in this stayers’ handicap – just a fourth podium for the yard this term and the best bit of form of any of them – can be built upon while his mark remains at or close to its current career low. Nobody should be persuaded that this piece of form proves his stamina for 3m beyond doubt, the Black Sam Bellamy gelding having been headed turning in after setting his own steady fractions up to that point, but a similar freebie dropped back to 2m4f or even shorter may yet reap dividends for this nephew of the one-time Rossington Main heroine Amaretto Rose, especially if sights are lowered ever so slightly. Sound surfaces remain an untried option. 2m2f40yds 0-120 Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase (class 4) There wouldn’t be many eleven-yearolds in training still progressing healthily over fences, but SPRING WOLF is just seven races into his career following a three-and-a-halfyear absence owed to successive leg injuries. Owner-bred by former longstanding Somerset handler John Ryall and actually one of the last runners he ever sent out during his valedictory 2015-16 season, the son of Loup Sauvage didn’t jump nearly as well here as he had in victory at Exeter on New Year’s Day, and the key to his continued success may yet prove to be a return to such galloping courses where he can organise himself better. Either way, it’s already apparent that 2m2f-2m3f, prominent or even forcing tactics and a fair amount of give underfoot make for the perfect combi-
nation for the Robert Walford-trained gelding at present, and further gains appear very likely granted more of the same.
MARKET RASEN, 5 February (Chase: soft. Hurdles: good to soft, good in places)
2m4f139yds 0-120 Handicap Hurdle (class 4) Jonjo O’Neill’s tally of 64 winners in 2017-18 was the handler’s lowest in a season since the Foot and Mouth-compromised 2000-1 campaign, but this term is in danger of being less bountiful still – just 45 successes at the time of writing. It’s been far from a story of across-the-board underperforming, disappointing performances, however, and TRANSPENNINE STAR's staying-on near-4l third in this fair handicap rated at least a season’s best effort, if not a best ever over hurdles. A sharp 2m4f such as this doesn’t appeal as the optimum trip over jumps of one with a pair of 1m6f Flat handicap successes around the galloping expanses of Redcar and Carlisle to his name, and the Mount Nelson six-year-old is
“A first blank season in a decade for the Cleeve Prior stable could easily be avoided if PASSAM can build on this result ”
worth giving a chance to build further on this should his next assignment comprise a return to a stiffer stamina test than today’s. Good and soft ground appears to come alike to him. 2m7f191yds 0-110 Handicap Chase (class 4) There are manmade structures smaller than JOHNNY YUMA, an enormous unit (reportedly well over seventeen hands) who on build alone should take more after the staying chasers dotted around his pedigree than after his Supreme Novices’/Fighting Fifth/Christmas Hurdle-winning uncle Go Native. Many big horses are martyrs to their wind, but it might be too simplistic to assume this is the case with Katy Price’s Alfred Nobel sixyear-old, for all that he folded quickly up the straight here despite the application of a tongue tie. Instead, a return to a longer track can give him time to get his jumping and running into a better rhythm, much as it had when making virtually all for his maiden point win around the flat, galloping Bredwardine circuit in Herefordshire 21 months ago. A candid, honest, articulate talker who has already set a new season’s best tally of winners, Price can be trusted to place her giant gelding to advantage before long, perhaps dropped down to the 0-100 class handicaps for which he remains eligible.
LUDLOW, 6 February (Good to soft)
1m7f169yds National Hunt Novices’ Hurdle (class 4) There’s no reason why connections ought not to have thought DORKING BOY worthy of contesting the Punchestown Grade 1 bumper and the Persian War Novices’ Hurdle on his two most recent previous outings, considering both the ease of his Market Rasen debut win and the presence of some really smart animals in the immediate family (notably Champion Bumper/Betfair Hurdle winner Ballyandy and Aintree Champion Bumper hero Megastar among the dam’s siblings). Faith can be kept for a while longer despite sizeable reverses in those two higher-grade contests and a 12l defeat here, a propensity to run with the choke out fudging for the time being the question of how effective recent wind surgery has proven. The turn of foot evident on that successful trip to Lincolnshire should continue to stand Tom Lacey’s son of Schiaparelli in good stead around sharp 2m tracks, and a return to deeper conditions wouldn’t go amiss. 2m5f55yds 0-135 Mares’ Handicap Hurdle (class 3) This return to hurdling looked well worth trying for DINOS BENEFIT, for whom confidence issues appeared to have crept in on both starts since November’s winning chase debut at Fontwell (2m5.5f, good). By no means thoroughly exposed over hurdles following just four prior starts in this discipline, it took a late withering run from the five-timer seeking Bonza Girl to deny the daughter of Mr Dinos an all-theway success by the very smallest of margins. She won’t always bump into such a rampant rival in these single-sex handicaps, and although her mares-only novice hurdling success the previous March had been gained around Chepstow there’s clearly nothing about a much sharper track such as today’s which presents any insur- mountable issue. Effectiveness already proven on anything from good to heavy should help keep Colin Tizzard’s options open. 2m4f11yds 0-135 Handicap Chase (class 3) There was a Terry Warner-owned winner of this fair event (Gortroe Joe), but on this occasion trained by Dan Skelton as opposed to his longerstanding associate Philip Hobbs. The Withycombe handler still emerged with plenty to cheer from the contest, however, as his own representative BROTHER TEDD’s 7l second was that of a gelding whose ability remains fully intact despite a 20-month spell on the sidelines. Owner-bred by former permit holder Jill Scrase out of her winning hurdler/chaser Neltina, the Kayf Tara ten-year-old was generally at her best over 2m4f-2m6f trips prior to her absence and is taken to remain thus on this most recent evidence; and whilst she does come with risks attached (several career breaks, one recorded episode of post-race ataxia, etc.), there ought to be another smallfield event in her this spring. A return to drier ground would not inconvenience.