Review of the day

At Huntington this afternoon, Squire Trelawney put up possibly the worst performance of any tip so far this season !

He was slow jumping off and a sketchy jump over the first fence left him in last position.

And that’s pretty much where he stayed until he was pulled up, not long after half way !!

His desperate run came as a surprise to me – but not to those laying him on BF.

In the final couple of minutes before the off, he drifted out from 8 to 11.5 (and that was on the back of an earlier drift from 6 to 8).

Once again, the market seemed to know exactly what was going to happen…

In the opening race on the card, Still Together was also weak in the betting (out to 9/2 from 3/1 early) – but he looked liking proving the market wrong, when he took up the running half a mile from home.

However, his stamina gave out shortly after and he was soon running on empty.

He eventually fished a well beaten fourth…

Value at Risk ran a cracker in the following handicap hurdle - but couldn’t contain the very well handicapped Baoulet Delaroque.

Both horses look to be on definite upward curves…

Over at Doncaster, Willoughby Hedge battled on well to take the opening handicap chase.
I guess 4/1 didn’t look too bad a price, as he galloped away from the final fence.

Similarly, 9/2 about Emerging Force looked OK, as Dickie Johnson forced his nose in front on the line, in the handicap hurdle.
That said, you wouldn’t have been interested at twice that price jumping the last, which shows how fine the lines are.

I really did want to tip him today – but I find it very difficult to put a horse at 9/2, when you can get 6/1 on BF.
Hopefully a few of you managed to get the bigger price…

In the finale, Notebook got away OK – and race prominently as expected – but he was a spent force when tackled in the home straight, and eventually came home a very tired third.

Finally, spare a thought for Francis on the forum.
In the ‘race of the day’ (Huntingdon 3:40) he creatively made a case for 20/1 outsider Albertos Dream – and doubtless felt very pleased with himself as it stormed into a 3 length lead, approaching the last (at which point it traded at 1.1 in running).

However, it then started to idle - and was collared on the run in by Albatros De Guye.

A bit of a sickener…

TVB.