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Aintree (other races)

Sefton Novices hurdle Friday.
Lucinda Russel has won this twice in the last 4 years.
She has a couple in here. King of Answers is the one I'm focusing on.
First time at 3m over rules, but it's his 2nd to Wendigo in his point over 3m that catches my eye. 50s + 40s available.
 
I couldn't help but be impressed by Filibustering (2:20) at Kelso on his first run over hurdles. The opposition was admittedly pretty poor, but his jumping was impeccable, he didn't put a foot wrong. Maybe he'll need a stiffer test than this - he stayed 2m on the flat - but worth a try at 14/1. I'm not sure it's the strongest race (aside from the fav).

I've also got Primoz (4:40) in my tracker after the start of the Grand Annual. He's not much of a price but fancy him to go close.
 
Two horses that may outrun their odds tomorrow at Aintree are Murcia, who gets a weights pull with the short-priced jolly who she was behind at Cheltenham, and Embassy Gardens.

It's hard to overstate just how much better the Irish chasers are and finishing 10.75l behind Galopin Des Champs at Leopardstown was no mean feat.

I doubt if Galopin Des Champs would be double-digit odds to give this motley bunch of ponces and Cheltenham Festival rejects 9lb.

Should be a cracking card tomorrow - the only thing that might spoil it is if I accidentally sit on the remote and this momentarily disables the mute button.
 
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Friday, 2.20 - Wade Out 7/1 - form figures this season are 12171 so guess when I backed it... I put it up as a longshot when it was seventh in the good novice hurdle won by Sixmilebridge at Cheltenham because the trainer had been quite effusive about it in its previous race. It then came out and hacked up in a lesser race which has seen the handicapper leave it alone but after which the trainer said the previous run was to bad to say the horse wasn't good enough to run in the higher class. The first three in that race are all some way over 140 and even if he'd chased them home he'd be over 140 himself yet he gets in here off 128. The trainer doesn't strike me as the type to tilt at windmills and I think this Wade Out could be a bit of a blot. I'm prepared to lay out a fair bit of hard cash to find out.
 
I've got a few as yet undisclosed for Friday, but....

1 I never put up bets until I'm (somehow) on.

2 I want to see how the ground rides tomorrow and where we are, stickwise, come Friday morning.

and

3 I know you all just love the suspense and you can cut the air of anticipation with a knife. 😂

PS: If I owned a windmill and anyone tilted at it (whatever the act of tilting at a windmill actually is) I'd either phone the police or set the dogs on them, probably both, actually.
 
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Totley County Primary School in Totley, Sheffield, never distributed any copies of that, quality establishment though it was, situated in one of the area's more affluent leafy suburbs.

I have a dislike of cliche tbh and believe most of the racing media should be behind bars, especially Stewart Machin (I think it was), who should be serving a full life sentence for that excruciating, self indulgent, obviously pre-prepared, commentary when Frankel won the International (that's its actual name, Juddmonte are just the sponsor) Stakes! 😂
 
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Ian_Davies said:
I have a dislike of cliche tbh and believe most of the racing media should be behind bars,
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Understandable.

I have a love-hate relationship with them. 'Tilting at windmills' is one I like because of its classical literary origin and the image it conveys but ones like 'game as a pebble' have me thinking 'WTF?'
 
I have no real fancies today but will enjoy the racing anyway.

My small interest on a few outsiders are:

2.20 Give it to me Oj 40/1
4.05 Ramillies 33/1 (I couldn’t resist a tiny bet on Bothwell Bridge too at 200/1)
4.40 Inedit Star 40/1
 
Euronymous said:
Manifesto:
I think Rubaud is too big for this at around 14s. He showed he stayed this trip in the Pendil and to me despite his good hurdling form at Kempton he didn't look at home on the chase course there. Fresher than the Cheltenham horses I think he's worth a dabble at double figures
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Agree 14s looked too big and now available at 20s. Probably drifted because of the amount of water they’ve put on the track but tempting each way at that price
 
Manifesto

On Tuesday I wrote:

The bookies seem to have a grip on this race, of which Jango Baie looks the most likely winner. Given how it won the Arkle, I had presumed the pace collapsed and it somewhat fell in his lap but the sectionals say otherwise and this is shaping up as quite a lesser race. Impaire Et Passe was the best of them over hurdles but so far hasn’t really convinced as a chaser, his jumping tended to deteriorate towards the end of his races. He hacked up in a good Sun Alliance at Cheltenham last year and coped well with dry ground at Sandown. If he can improve his jumping he’d be the one to beat.

Then they were going 11/4 JB & 10/3 IEP. Now they're 5/2 & 15/8 respectively.
They can fvck right off at those prices. I'm not getting involved.
 
Foxhunters - I've had to reduce the screen size to fit the field into a single screenshot so I hope it's readable:

1743679416516.png

I’ve ordered these by RPR to see if they throw up value anywhere, just for the sake of an interest in the race since it is a spectacle. It will also give us an indication of how the track is riding, which I expect to be on the slow side of soft. This race can be as much about jockeyship as equine ability and Derek O’Connor has the reputation of being the best amateur around. I don’t rate him the equal of the top pros, as many do, but he is definitely one of the best amateurs. He makes Presentandcounting attractive at 40/1. Connections must have gone to some lengths to persuade him to take the ride when there were many other more obvious possibles. The main bet will be My Drogo. He doesn’t feature high up in the table but he’s rated on his seasonal form which has been in PTPs and a low level Hunter chase. Four years ago he won the G1 novice hurdle at this meeting and went up to 155 for it, so should have gone up to 165 as a novice chaser. A fall with the race at his mercy and a win, both times at Cheltenham, that autumn bode well but he was off after that until two poor runs last season which put a different complexion on his profile. He transferred out of the Skelton yard at Christmas and seems to have been revitalised by his new trainer. If he is anywhere near as good as he once promised to be he could win this with his head in his chest. I reckon you’re getting 9/2 about him getting round. I’ll probably have small ew bets on the longshots that figure high in the table.
 
Ian_Davies said:
If I owned a windmill and anyone tilted at it (whatever the act of tilting at a windmill actually is) I'd either phone the police or set the dogs on them, probably both, actually.
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I subscribe to a free daily email on wordsmith.org, called a word a day. Often they have interesting words and explains origins, usage and have a thought for the day. Curiously, today’s word, a bit boring but, it is Windmill. The email includes this:

The metaphorical sense of windmill comes spinning out of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, in which our deluded hero mistakes windmills for towering foes and launches a one-man attack against renewable energy.​

To tilt at windmills now means to battle imaginary enemies. It’s an expression that reminds us: sometimes the real enemy isn’t the windmill -- it’s the wind between our ears.​
 
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