The Pointing Thread

The Tother One is finished

Not Before Eight is an improver this season but has to step up further

On The Fringe - supposedly a machine but has had problems, was a top horse 2 seasons back as a youngster

Carsonstown Boy - put him up elsewhere for the Down Royal HC, was fat as a butchers dog at Maralin FTO and was a very useful hurdler on his day.

Salsify - Champion HC last season but dropped out rather tamely on his return to the track (had previously travelled v v well before being headed on the run in at Dromahane)

Tammys Hill - improving type who could go well at a big price

Initial thoughts on the race - would add that Oscar Delta bled FTO so that would put me off him massively.

Martin
 
Yes, but why would a butcher's dog be fit? I think the person who coined the expression must have had a New Zealand accent.
 
Note that Special Portrait won a hunter at Ayr about this time last year (probably the corresponding race), has been aimed for this contest for a while now, and had the form of his January 29th Sheriff Hutton victory franked by the 3l second Harmony Brig going in at Overton on Sunday.

Note also that everything that could have gone wrong prior to that Sheriff Hutton victory did go wrong. Per my copy in the Weekender the following midweek;

“I’m chuffed to bits – we’ve had such a hard time the last few weeks”, [trainer Mark] Hughes remarked. “It was the original plan to come here on the 15th [the first date for this meeting before the weather intervened], then we missed days due to frost. He’s also had a haematoma between his legs and we’ve not been able to do much more than lunge him this week”.

There'd also been the small matter of a second-fence fall (very uncharacteristic) at Alnwick on January 22nd.

Special Portrait looked pretty fit at Sheriff, but I can imagine him stripping fitter still today if he's had a less interrupted time of things in the interim. On Official Ratings he probably shouldn't prove quite good enough, but I don't think the disparity in his and Cloudy Lane's chances quite warrants best prices (as at 10am) of 5-1 and 2-9 respectively.

And if Special Portrait does go in again, nobody in the Northern pointing Area will begrudge Mark Hughes that one iota. In a sphere increasingly light on one- or two-horse operations run by working men, Hughes fits in training Special Portrait around his day job as a binman for Allerdale Borough Council. There was plenty of happy chatting with and backslapping of him in evidence on Sunday at Overton, only further reinforcing the impression of that being an everyman's venue with an everyman's atmosphere - I was quite taken with it, I must say.

One jarring reminder of my increasing and inexorable hurtling towards middle age at Overton, however, was witnessing the victory in the Restricted of the foal of the foal of one of the 3m chasers of my formative years! Clive Storey's mare Weeumba is the daughter of Weejumpawud, niece of Wudimp and granddaughter of Weewumpawud, who used to guide Clive around the northern Rules venues in the early and mid-1980s. Pass me my pipe and slippers...

Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)
 
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Interesting, thanks Jeremy. Great to hear stories of the small man doing well although I suspect Cloudy Lane will win by 5 or 6 lengths today. I won't be too disheartened if Special Portrait does it for Mr Hughes!
 
Another of my favourite types of races today, the hunters chase in Kelso 4.10! The favourite looks like a good thing as long as he handles the ground however I'm keen to take him on e/w with Sacred Mountain for the Waltons. Will handle the conditions and is in relative good nick as he won his last start. Anyone have any further insights on this race?
 
Calling Irish Stamp and Jeremy! The Leicester Hunter looks between Galway Jack and Start Royal. My preference is for Galway Jack who should win if more patiently ridden today. Can you shed further thoughts/opinions on Start Royal and how you see this race panning out?

Over to Musselburgh, I can see Simonsberg being turned over in this one most likely, as the prices would suggest, by Silverburn.

All in all, two interesting races today. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
 
GJ going well at home but get the impression that Johnny only knows one way of riding him so if anything goes with him he might be in trouble. Start Royal will appreciate the drop back in trip IMO and has done well on speed tracks like Cottenham and Kingston Blount as a youngster. I can see GJ going off in front and hopefully for his backers nothing takes him on - I don't see why Advertising Space is as short as he is, he looked promising in France and has form with some useful horses but he's failed to complete on his two starts so far in points and backers are relying on the connections and a hatred of farmers fields being to get him right IMO. Would happily take Rumbury Grey to beat Advertising Space in a match bet with the former running a solid race behind the enigmatic Cedrus Libani LTO.

Wouldn't rule out Dusshera in the race though as she's been progressing nicely in a weak area (the South East) but her run last time out on her return to action at Chaddesley has been franked since with Commander Kev running out an easy winner next time out at Charing last month.


Martin
 
Thanks Trefflich - was a no bet race for me but would have layed Aggies Lad if forced to do anything in there.

Agree on Simonsberg too.
 
Well done Martin, seems you got a great price on Rumbury after! Match bet of the year by the sounds of things too. Laid Galway Jack after reading your comments on the jock, didn't think he'd last out which proved correct thankfully!

Silverburn also hacked up and I laid Simonsberg as I just couldn't have him being that short. So all in all a good days hunter chasing! Love these races as punting mediums and spectacles. Now on to tomorrow...
 
Yeah the lads who run that have only recently set it up Steve but they know what they're doing. Gareth Topham is a very good young commentator who you'll all be hearing a lot more about under rules in the future whilst Andy Norman does a lot of work in Midlands pointing - there'd be far far worse people to follow when it comes to betting in UK Hunter Chases.

Martin
 
With the Henderson team in great form, if Barber Shop is ever going to win another race well then today is the day. Odds on in what appears to be a match, I'd expect him to win this handily today in receipt of weight off the top horse Eleazar.

In the Sandown Hunter, I'm going to side with Gwanako. I believe he will come through this test as most of his rivals are inconvenienced by the trip or using this as a springboard to bigger prizes later in the season.

A short priced double for me today...not my usual bet but I fancy these. Martin/Jeremy, can you offer opinions? Or steer me in the right direction!
 
I'd agree with you Trefflich if I thought that Barbers Shop was still a capable racehorse but he's not been seen out in nearly 15 months and last time he ran they were trying the blinkers on him for hte first time (debatable whether cheek pieces had worked given he'd been soundly beaten each time he'd worn them). The 147 rating is to me a very false indication of his ability and his only wins over fences have been going RH at Kempton (beaten the decent at the time Russian Around), LH at Newbury (though he was 1/5) and against Abbeybraney again RH at Sandown. I've always been of the opinion that Barbers Shop is overated and Eleazar is no mug in his own right having run Southwestern close on that horses favourite track in a big Hunter Chase at Stratford last year and previously beaten the injury prone (but v v decent) Dante's Storm at Uttoxeter. Eleazar also has proven course form and but for falling in a Novice Chase would have won his last two starts at this track, he was also a very decent hurdler and it was less than 2 years ago that he was running in the Coral Cup at Cheltenham.

Will be laying Barbers Shop today @ 1.68.

Regarding the Sandown race I'd agree that Gwanako is the most likely winner but having priced the race up last night I think he's underpriced at 9/4, it was a very solid effort in defeat at Larkhill and he'll have a decent young jockey on board today but for me the horse who's seriously overpriced is the Irish challenger Jamadiel, it's hard to take his recent P2P starts without a large dose of cynicism given how close he got to Foxhunters favourite Backstage on his most recent outings but I can see him running into a place in this, the drop in trip is a concern but this will be his first outing in a Hunter Chase having previously contested the Military races around here.

Blackstaff would be the one from the leading contenders for me as he looked a highly progressive youngster last season for the Williams' and Lizzie Kelly with the latter giving him a very positive ride at Exeter for her Maiden triumph before being badly hampered and effectively put out of the race during the Intermediate Final at Cheltenham, I don't see the drop back in tirp being a problem and whilst Gwanako and Heron's Well will be tough to beat (Putney Bridge too if returning in the same form that he was in when last seen) I think he looks a decent E/W price.

Good luck today Trefflich - fingers crossed for some more profits :)

Martin
 
What Martin said, basically. I'd also like to point to Eleazar's ability to defy sizeable lay-offs as another virtue of his - three times in his career he's gone in after absences as long as today's or longer.

Barbers Shop has won twice on seasonal reappearance himself if one includes his March 2006 bumper debut (short-heading yesterday's Musselburgh winner Silverburn, no less!), but the last time he did that was when making desperately hard work of landing a Southwell intermediate hurdle in June 2007 after six months out.

He's never successfully gone in after a longer break than that, although in mitigation some of those reappearances have necessarily been in races at or close to the highest level.

The only fear with Eleazar is whether he's on one of his bone-idle days and sets himself too much to do - you wouldn't want him to drop out of the back of the telly by halfway around somewhere as sharp as Fakenham.

There's a school of thought that suggests he might have won the W&S Recycling at Stratford (the erstwhile Horse&Hound) last spring had he raced more purposefully from earlier in the race, and it's a view I'm not entirely unsympathetic towards.

gc
 
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