Captain looks ship-shape in Hamilton test
Captain Haddock (6.18) can swim away from the field on a cracking card at Hamilton.
The first Sky Bet Sunday Series fixture of 2022 is at the Lanarkshire venue with £205,000 up for grabs in the seven races which are all live on ITV4.
The £1.2 million Series, in its second year, offers an additional £ 250,000 in bonuses for jockeys, apprentices, trainers, owners and stable staff.
Naturally, the juicy cash prizes and incentives have been rewarded with very encouraging entries and there’s some extremely competitive affairs.
At the same time, there should be nice prices around Captain Haddock in the stayers’ handicap having previously shown a liking for the course.
The five-year-old really relished the stiff hill at Hamilton last year when hacking up over the one mile and five furlongs of tonight’s assignment.
Heather Main’s charge had a nice pipe opener at Doncaster recently when coming third and that will have put the gelding spot on for this.
It’s a tougher affair and he’s got seven pounds more on his back but it often pays to back horses with Hamilton form and he’ll be a price.
The Johnstons rarely leave the place without a winner so NORDHALLA (4.18) has to be worth a second look in the fillies’ handicap.
The three-year-old was a nice winner two starts ago on the all-weather at Southwell before showing she was just as effective on Turf when scoring at Chepstow last time.
The Middleham Boys know the time of day and it is intriguing she goes straight into this from that day in Wales at the foot of the weights with the superb Franny Norton in the saddle.
BELUGA GOLD (5.48) looked a nice type when winning at Catterick last time for the shrewd John Quinn yard.
The colt showed no signs of stopping at the finish over seven furlongs that day and now drops back a furlong for the sprint handicap.
Beluga Gold may have the stamina to keep going up the hill when many of these other youngsters have cried enough.
There’s jumping action south of the border at Plumpton and Ludlow with one or two horses worthy of support.
SLATE HOUSE (3.25) has slipped down the rankings having been a novice of some promise but has bounced back to form with a couple of wins at Kempton recently.
The 10-year- old gave Joe Tizzard his first win since he took the training licence from dad Colin and there wasn’t much in that success to suggest he couldn’t go in again here.
Slate House had to be rousted in stages but he goes up two furlongs here in Sussex from Sunbury and that should be highly in his favour.
Christian Wi l liams’ GROOM D’OUDAIRIES (5.10) is well worth a bet at Ludlow. The yak was well-fancied by his shrewd connections at Ayr in the hour after their Win My Wings bolted home in the Scottish Grand National.
However, he didn’t get the greatest of rides in the conditional jockeys’ race.
With a pound off his rating, Groom gets to drop into this 0-100 event and, crucially, the excellent Jack Tudor is in the saddle this time.