Review of the day

It might be the first day of a new year – but it was the same old story this afternoon…

After moving comfortably into the lead approaching the third last, Upsilon Bleu put in a hesitant jump, allowing Cold March to regain the advantage.

To his credit Upsilon Bleu battled to the line – but he couldn’t get back ahead of the Venetia trained winner (how typical !).

Since Christmas, I have now tipped 10 horses – and 5 of them have traded in-running, at even money or less – but not one of them has won.

That’s even ignoring Tea for Two, who must have traded at 1.01 to be placed in the King George !

There is not a lot more I can do – they just need a bit of luck…

Ofcourse, it would be much easier to take, if the tips in the early part of the season had done well – but they hardly covered themselves in glory.

There was one other tip on the day – and the market movements were very interesting…

Somerset Jem was an easy 10/1 shot when I tipped him just after 8:30 – and 6/1 when I issued the write-up.

Money continued to come for him – and he was 4/1 about 10 mins before the off.

However, a drift then began - and he was over 10/1 on BF, a minute or so before the off.

That’s never a good sign – and the he was only clipped in late, so that the SP and BSP, were broadly similar…

Obviously, it’s impossible to know what (if anything) was going on.
I suspect we moved a weak market early – and the late drift could simply have been a market correction when the significant money arrived.

Whatever the reason, the horse didn’t run a race – and was last pretty much throughout.

It does make me very wary about tipping in relatively low grade races….

I only issued 2 tips on the day because of concerns regarding the weather – and I think that is something I got absolutely right !

It rained all afternoon at Cheltenham – and as a consequence there were plenty of non runners – and some unfathomable results…

It would have taken a Crystal ball to foresee Tour Des Champs winning the handicap chase – and the fact that he did was particularly galling for anyone who backed Doctor Harper (me !).

The official mention in the race, Warrantor, also ran well – but I suspect he’s not really a Cheltenham horse…

Briery Belle was well backed in the Dipper chase – but was no match for Whisper or Clan des Obeaux.

The winner did it well – but I suspect that he will struggle when faced with a bigger field…

Shantou Flyer was another unpickable winner, in the other big handicap chase.

He was having his first run for Rebecca Curtis – and didn’t looked well handicapped – but he still managed to run down the ultra game Village Vic.

As de Mee ran a really poor race and could be another one who is unsuited by Cheltenham.

The handicap hurdle turned into a bit of a nonsense race, with no less than 6 non runners (including all of the ones I was interested in).

Cogry bounced back to form, on his first run over hurdles for quite some time.

In the Relkeel hurdle, Lil Rockerfeller ran his first disappointing race in a long time…

My feeling is that you can only go to the well so often – and he has already been 4 times this season.
Hopefully he will be given a break and freshened up for the festival.

Cole Harden ran a really big race to finish third, on ground that he would have hated.

There remains life in him…

If I did the right thing in ducking Cheltenham, then I did the wrong thing in not making Superb Story an eye catcher.

I thought he would win – but knew he had a job on – and in truth that’s exactly how it panned out…

He handled the course fine and his SP of 11/8 was probably about right.

He was all out to hold on at the end – but he never looked likely to lose.

It got very soft at Exeter – and Fourovakind went very close to winning.
As did Castarnie – who certainly outran dismissive odds.
However, he couldn’t get to his stablemate Umberto D’Olivate, who was a game winner.

Earlier on the Exeter card, Kayf Blanco was a little unlucky not to place.
He finished fourth - but was hampered by a faller at the second last and that possibly cost him third place (though nothing more than that).

Finally, Helium ran a fair race at Catterick – but could only finish third…

TVB.