The Pointing Thread

Cracking renewal of the race and the 5yo Classinaglass is one to take out of the race as he was given a very negative ride by Tom Greenall - one for next season.

The big one is up next at 20:20 and my main bet is on the ex-Paul Nicholls trained Earth Dream for the John Ferguson yard, to be ridden his son James. He's a useful pointer and his HC win at Fakenham (also flat and LH) confirmed the promise he'd shown earlier at the flat, RH circuit at Cottenham and the undulating RH Horseheath - both in East Anglia. EA isn't a strong area in the main but this horse would be a class act in those races and I can see him going well at the available 12/1. Salsify is the class act in the race but he's essentially better over shorter trips whilst My Flora's course record and impressive romp in the Novice equivalent last year would have her in the frame too. The drift on Postmaster is worrying but he'd be carrying the second highest weight in this if it were run based on OR's (to Salsify) so he'd have to come into the reckoning also. Can't see Zemsky winning as he looked nothing like he had previously when returning at Fairyhouse in April whilst a fairytale win for Southwestern is highly unlikely IMO given he's a 13yo whilst Herons Well is another who's too short in the market IMO.

Martin
 
Shocking last night - only a couple left now though at Cartmel and Downpatrick and we can wait until Wexford in November for the next one :)

Martin
 
Keep up the good work, Martin.

Nice to have someone whose finger is on the pulse of a part of racing that is a closed book to some of us, me in particular.

Will you be taking a long holiday in the off-season, you must have made squillions.
 
A decent HC quality wise to end the season and my initial thoughts are that there's very little to choose between the front two in the market with Alvarado almost certainly going to take a dislike to a track that's always on the turn and LH (jumped RH both starts for this yard in HC's) I'd have to be opposing him at anything shorter than 6/4. Call Me Mulligan would be the bet for me at 2/1, he's come back to form in recent times with two nice victories and whilst he wouldn't have been as good as Alvarado under rules he's a solid performer in these races and has a very capable jockey up. Most of the others don't look up to much with the exception of Oranger who's overpriced at 12/1 and would be a smashing E/W bet if we had one more runner in today's race.

Looking forward to next season now and likely to be involved in a horse running in the SE for 2012/13 which is exciting - will also add my thoughts on horses that graduate from points as we progress through the Summer and hopefully highlight a few winners, starting with Chief Buccaneer (14:20 Fontwell) who will need the step up in trip and was given a confidence booster LTO, jumping isn't great but Tom Cannon will help and I think he's capable of defying top weight here.

Martin
 
Irish Stamp said:
A decent HC quality wise to end the season
Martin
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Beg pardon? On a scale of 1-10 it scores "gash". :whistle:

My limited knowledge of northern points tells me that Call Me Mulligan would probably have won his latest contest at Mordon (Mordor, shirley?) if the jockey had to carry him rather than the other way around, and Oranger is a rogue isn't he? I'd take Alvarado to lose 5 lengths at every fence and still run out a cosy winner.

Bring it on!
 
There's no such thing as a bad Hunter Chase Rory - point taken on the quality front though, think Alvarado has some issues which maybe are internal rather than just the LH/RH issue.

As you say Call Me Mulligan would have won LTO whatever had happened, they're rated similar in the Loose Leaf but Alvarado has weight to concede to Call Me Mulligan which will aid the latter's cause. As you say Oranger is a bit of an old rogue but the jockey is a decent pilot and has won a HC already this year at Leicester on Trifollet and I couldn't resist a bet earlier on him even with just the two places (he'll finish third now).

Good luck

Martin :)
 
Irish Stamp said:
There's no such thing as a bad Hunter Chase Rory - point taken on the quality front though, think Alvarado has some issues which maybe are internal rather than just the LH/RH issue.

As you say Call Me Mulligan would have won LTO whatever had happened, they're rated similar in the Loose Leaf but Alvarado has weight to concede to Call Me Mulligan which will aid the latter's cause. As you say Oranger is a bit of an old rogue but the jockey is a decent pilot and has won a HC already this year at Leicester on Trifollet and I couldn't resist a bet earlier on him even with just the two places (he'll finish third now).

Good luck

Martin :)
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Well done Martin - hope you had more on CMM than Oranger!
 
Interesting to see The Rodeo Clown back under rules for John Ferguson up at Hexham today, he's a much improved horse this P2P season IMO and though there's been the odd slip up he's generally been a consistent horse in Open's, most recently when winning at Dingley (reversed Fakenham form with the third) and prior to that winning in a bog on the undulating course at Northaw. He's generally a staying type but if he goes out in front on this sort of ground he could take some pegging back, I thought he'd be shorter than than 5/2 though as there doesn't look a great deal to beat here and Jack Quinlan takes the ride as usual with the Ferguson runners.

Martin
 
Time to bring this back now the Irish season has got under way.

Early news is that the Ian Ferguson yard is 2 from 2 in the 4yo Maiden's run so far this season whilst also taking advantage of Willie Thompson's 5lb claim to take the weight off the youngsters backs. Ceasar Milan looked particularly impressive last weekend.

Also a bit of controversy as a friend pointed out elsewhere that the Gordon Elliot trained Nedzer's Return (partnered by GE's fiance Annie Bowles) raced in a hood when winning the Open at Castletown-Geoghegan last Sunday, clearly GE knew that this was banned under the Turf Club rules (only cheekpieces can be worn in points) since NR had no hood when in the parade ring, nor when he returned to the winners enclosure aftewards. Nedzer's Return is entered at Loughrea in the Novice Riders race on Sunday and will be attempting to take Annie Bowles record to 3/3 in the past two seasons in addition to being Lady Novice Champion in the East Anglia area last season.

Some interesting entries at Maralin this weekend where I'll be in attendance providing the meeting goes ahead - most notably from a UK perspective the ex-Nicholls/Barber horse Vicasflia in the Winner Of One event who's now trained by Shark Hanlon. IIRC the mud was flying when he won his Maiden and with Maralin being more of a speed track the track could suit him, though Shark Hanlon's horses are woefully out of form at the moment.

Martin
 
Hi Martin ,alot of rain yesterday but today blue skys and tommorrow forecast the same. I would be very hopeful of racing. If I am going up I will text u in the morning and hopefully get a pint. I take it you ok for transport?

Brian
 
Sounds good Brian - yeah I'm grand as flights leave plenty of time to get to the track and take in the Subway in Lisburn (assuming it's still there), meeting a friend who's travelling up from County Meath also so should be a good day.

Disappointed at the entries later in the card - someone must have a mare to put in that Maiden race, it looks dire with less than 10 entries.

Just hoping the rain holds off for the next 24 hours now :)

Martin
 
Olor may be the story of the season.
adopted by its current owner from a horse shelter he won a confined maiden last season before winning easily at Rathcannon first day of the season. Trained by Pauric O Connor brother of Derek. he may be the Hunt Ball of p to p.
Also 260th anniversary of first steeplechase between Buttevant and Doneraile being celebrated tomorrow Sat with a race over the original course by the Awbeg river to be followed by a fun ride. Raise a glass to Messrs Blake and O Callaghan this weekend as they are the reason we are all here trying to make sense of it all! Enjoy your sport.
 
Well said Edgt - Olor has certainly done well given he cost 500 Euro's from an animal shelter (IIRC).

Hope anyone heading to the original home of Steeplechasing has a great day out tomorrow too :)
 
Update from the weekend - Nedzer's Return has been DQ'd from the Castletown race last Sunday and it's been awarded to Benalma.

Slippers Percy made a winning pointing debut in the Open on his debut for trainer James Jack seeing off useful opponents including Tyrone Golden Rain (already a winner this season), Merchant Paddy (now with David Chrstie) and Mister Philson amongst others - he quickened up well from after 3 out and won fairly comfortably IMO.

Simonsig's brother Simarthur was running a blinder and was only a neck down jumping the last when coming down in the Winners race won by Highly Unlikely - it looked a decent affair beforehand with previous course winner Adamstown in the field and getting a 4yo allowance + having a claiming jockey on board he was receiving plenty of weight. The Maiden that Adamstown won at the last meeting at Maralin has been franked by the runner-up (Bumper winner Clondaw Kaempfer) whilst it was franked again in the opening 4yo Maiden with King Hellissio seeing off the tiny but game and consistent Masterleaderman who's now finished runner-up on both his starts this season, he's sure to break his Maiden but is definitely more of a hurdler than a chaser.

Martin
 
The UK season gets underway with two meetings, one at Black Forest Lodge (a few miles South of Exeter) and a meeting at Cottenham (NE of Cambridge).

Herecomesthetruth is probably the best horse running at the latter having won a Grade 1 Chase for Paul Nicholls as a Novice a few years back whilst the durable Findlay's Find could make his earliest start to the season down at BFL.

If anyone was planning on going to Exeter and it is called off then BFL is well worth the visit despite there only being the 5 races.

Martin
 
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