Daily write-up - Jan 6th

There is just the one NH meeting this afternoon, at Huntingdon…

It was always likely to be a quiet week – and the wet weather has made that even more the case.

Bangor was sunk yesterday – and Newcastle has been abandoned tomorrow.

A number of the fixtures scheduled for Friday Saturday and Sunday, are also under threat.

Furthermore, the meetings that do take place, are generally being run on very heavy ground, which is never ideal from a betting perspective.

That will certainly be the case today at Huntingdon, so anyone considering having a bet should tread carefully…

The high light of the Huntingdon card is the novice chase, off at 2:10.

The defection of Closing Ceremony is unfortunate, but it stills leaves a fascinating clash between Fletchers Flyer and Value at Risk.
Both are potential top notchers – particularly the latter, who fell on his only outing over fences, having been very well backed.

Despite the patchy current form of the Dan Skelton yard, I would prefer him of the two.

The potential fly in the ointment is the ex Irish Drumacoo on his first outing for Ben Pauling.
However, he is going to have to be pretty useful to upset the big 2…

The most valuable race on the card, is the handicap hurdle at 2:40.
This has a very big field, but looks at the mercy of Venetia trained Tara Flow. She won comfortably at Leicester last week and is effectively 7lb ‘well in’ under a 7lb penalty today

The Harry Whittington trained Qasser is the obvious alternative to the favourite – but a less obvious one is Newton Geronimo.

He was still travelling nicely when coming down over fences at Ludlow on his last outing.
He has been given 2 months to get over that and whilst there is a lot of guesswork involved, he could be worth a tiny EW interest at 25/1 (and more so, if there is any money for him).

The most interesting horse of the day, could have been Kavanaghs Corner in the closing race on the card.

I marked him down as one to follow next time, over a trip of 2m6f.

That was because he weakened appreciably in the closing stages of a 3 mile race at Towcester.

In fairness, the finish at Towcester and the finish at Huntingdon, couldn’t be more different.

However, he is actually stepping up by a furlong in trip today  - and that coupled with the very soft ground (and relatively short price), is enough to put me off.

If you are in need of some action, I could see him trading quite low (as he will likely travel well) – but I’m not convinced he will have the stamina required to come home in front.

Tomorrow is likely to be another quiet day – but I’ll advise on how I will handle it, either this evening, or first thing tomorrow morning.

Best of luck if you do choose to get involved today.

TVB.