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Cheltenham Hunter Chase evening

jinnyj

Senior Jockey
Joined
Jan 8, 2004
Messages
5,157
Thought I'd do a thread with a few comments in case anyone is interested. But please note that I don't know those horses really that are out of my Area in the West Country. There will also be at least one big riced winner which will look obvious in hindsight!!

Gullible may also like to chip in!

Race 1
I think this could be between last year's winner A Jet of Our Own who gets a useful 7lb pull and clearly acts round here and Barton Snow who's trained by JJO'Shea (Aintree FH winning trainer). The latter beat Viroflay last time and he's useful (4-1 for 4.15 Punchestown hunter chase Friday). That was at Stratford which is a very different course but they were well clear of third.

Race 2
I really like Important Notice in this. He beat Barton Snow 3 runs ago and although he was beaten last time, that was by Macklin (runs 6.20) who IMO is very useful. He's a reasonable EW price too and I know they think a bit of him (he's also from the family of Denman). Clashhill and Mumbo Jumbo head the market and their form ties in - haven't watched either. Snapfish has done nothing wrong in winning but I feel the contests he's won have been fairly ordinary including the wide margin hunter chase he won last time as Switch Hitter the fav was WD after misbehaving on way to start. Crawter is improving but he jumps right and that worries me.

Race 3
Fairly Famous really acts round here (won last two years) and was unlucky at Festival when hampered. Douglas Longbottom is improving and has Will Biddick replacing Martin McIntyre who's off injured. Alaphillipe was just touched off in the Pertemps Final and has blinkers for the first time.....interesting!! Glenmount is better than the first two runs when there were excuses for getting beaten and he's part-owned by the Point to Point Authority CEO (and trained by Jason Weaver's cousin!!) so he might be an interesting ew price. Learntalot too is respected from a top yard/jockey combo.

Race 4
Only 5 but three nice horses at the head of the market. Gracchus de Balme is obviously the Aintree winner while Music Drive ran well here to finish 4th at the Festival. But my heart (and I really love this horse) is with Macklin. Same owner as Porlock Bay and he's got gears. Whether he's good enough to beat the other two, I don't know. I will be very nervous watching and propping up an even more nervous owner!

Race 5
Cuilin Hills was National Pointing Champion in 2023 then had a huge amount of time off before coming back this season. She won last time but the long lay off worries me. Likewise Latenightfumble had even longer off so I prefer Walkin Out who loves the ground and is decent. Very highly thought of by her trainer too.

Race 6
Law of Gold is a standing dish here and you can't know him. But I do like Norton Hill (his young trainer Harry Ryall is talented). He's possibly a bit of a chancy jumper (I deem to remember talking to the owners when he won saying he wasn't a natural)but he's got Will Biddick on board so that's a help. Jeffrey's Cross won on hunter debut for Skelton and is an obvious one while Go Go Geromino I have a small ew hunch for.

Race 7
Take All was a huge price but still going well when falling here at the Festival. He'd earlier beaten Famous Clermont which I don't think was a fluke either. Knockmoylan at a big price I was a fan of but he too has had problems before returning to win 2 this term. Remaining fancied horses are all professionally trained so I'd rather they didn't win!!
 
Very interesting this Jinnyj and I will comment further in the morning. Not too sure that there are many if any on here interested in Hunterchase’s and point to point so might just you and me 😍 I will say tonight however that Learntalot is my NAP of the night.
 
It's good to see that one of the races at this evening's meeting has been named in memory of Jonathan Neesom. He was invariably meticulous in his preparation for appearances on Racing TV's jumps fixtures. His comment that certain horses might improve for the application of cash is one I remember well.
 
For what they are worth Jinnyj here are my selections:
Race 1 Barton Snow ….ignore JJ O’Shea at your peril
Race 2 Classhill …..trainer having a good PTP season
Race 3 Learntalot NAP …..vibes are good for this one
Race 4 Macklin ….great jockey and the horse has not been given a hard season
Race 5 Cullin Hills…..saw this one win our sponsored race at Hexham and was impressive imo
Race 6 Law Of Gold…..I just love this combination from East Anglia
Race 7 Rebel Dawn Rising…..as above

In the competition that I run on Pointing Pointers with an entry of over 50 people there is £20 bonus for going through the card ……. I don’t think that I will be collecting it 🤪😜
 
What ever became of Irish Stamp who had some legendary previews of these meetings ?
Thanks for the thoughts guys
Martin is still around but lived in France for a while so is not so tuned in to the pointing back here.

Oh keep an eye out for a young jockey called Rian Corcoran. He's riding two outsiders tonight in Liberty Rock and Honest Opinion. We gave him our Wessex Rising Star award last year (I actually invented the award for him) and it looks like he will be the Novice Riders Champion this season. Very talented lad who's only 17 but rides with a mature head on him - very much like James Bowen at the same age. I did an interview with Rian last November (then some twat of another journo poached it.....:machinegunner::axeman2::axeman:which I won't elaborate on) so I based it more on his wonderful horse Itacare who combines pointing with Pony Club dressage ridden by Rian's 10 year old sister. It was a lovely story to write and she's going up to Cheltenham to support her brother tonight(and bunking off school!)
 
It was a fun evening with a really good crowd although I suspect the weather plus band playing afterwards helped. Financially didn't do great. Didn't back Crawter due to worrying about his jumping but he's got enough talent to get away with it (I suspect he has something grumbling there). He's owned by a bit of a legend in Stan Rawlins who is known as Mr Larkhill. He is a farmer who gives up hours of his time to roll, harrow and generally make sure that the going at Larkhill is perfect. He grumbles like you wouldn't believe, rings me up to moan at the most inconvenient times but has an absolute heart of gold and is what pointing is all about. He bought this horse for peanuts from Josh Newman and its trained by a family friend's daughter in Harriet Waight. She only has the two horses, no gallops and three small children to cope with. She was astounded he won tonight! They even nearly forgot to put the cheekpieces on until we reminded them as they left the pre-parade and they had to run back to the stables and get them.
After the race, I went to congratulate Stan and was dragged into the winners enclosure with him saying "You're the most important lady in Wessex pointing so you have to be with us!" Then it was off to the winners room by the weighing room for champagne hosted by John Inverdale (who's incredibly dull sadly...and I can talk to anyone!)

Macklin ran a very good race behind two very decent horses. The mares' race was a corker and fair play to connections of the winner after over 800 days plus a foal, off!!
 
No - too far! I already have a meeting up there at some stage and loathe having to go. The M5 is just a sh*t show of a motorway. I opted out of the last meeting there choosing to attend via Zoom. My colleague who represents Devon & Cornwall area, took over 7 hours to get home! And already today there's been another potential jumper on a bridge one junction up from me. Its happening every other day at the moment - I blame to Government personally!
 


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