Huge couple of days coming up. I fancy loads on both sides of the Irish Sea.
I've followed Marb in on General Officer in the 1.40 At Musselbrough. Monmiral is not a horse I like and I was looking for a way to oppose him. Not gone full bore here as he's not a tracker but I do have one later on in the card 2.50, Parisencore, in the handicap hurdle. I don't do those type of races and naturally I was hoping he'd stay over fences but he's handy for an ew double.
The two mile handicap chase at Sandown I tackled ante-post as I felt the ground would be against some of those in behind Saint Segal and In Excelsis Deo in the market and sure enough the race has cut up. I took 4s on the former and have topped up at 9/4. IED I put in an ew double with another tracker alert, Path D'aroux, in the 4.10 at Leop. That horse went into my notebook when he finished really well behind Hunter's Yarn last month in a Beginners at Fairyhouse. I don't tend to study Irish handicap chases so his fall before that at Xmas passed me by. Speaking of which Solness is a killer horse for me. I put him on alert when he followed home Saldier in a Beginners at Thurles this time last year after which The Baby Joseph kept running him in modest races where he was odds-on then over the summer/autumn he overfaced him against decent types so I took him off my list and sure enough he pops in at 7/1 in his first go in a handicap early in Dec. Lesson learned. I'll be mad if he wins but 147 is a tough looking mark.
Grozni went into the tracker when he was a good second behind a Pumpkin shorty at Donny in mid Dec. That was over three miles and he ran ok after that stepped down to 2 1/2 at Muss where luckily he was fairly short so I didn't have much on and the return to three miles at Sandown 3.45 tomorrow will suit. This race doesn't look as competitive as you'd think on first glance. It's choc full of boats who ideally need further (Dom of Mary, Certainly Red and Bangers/Cash fall into that category). A couple of layers were lazy pricing this up on decs and left Grozni on his ante-post price (16s). That's been smashed in and I've decided to cover on the fav who looks the only danger to me. Blackjack Magic ran well enough in a much better race than this last time at Ascot and I've put him in an ew double with Thunder Rock who runs Sunday at Musselbrough. That track will suit much much better than Cheltenham did previously and I expect him to bounce back.
Lastly I very rarely bet in bumpers but I thought Redeption Day was worth a go in the last tomorrow. He was second to a Giggi on his first run back for a while but he travelled like the best horse in the race on that occasion and I'm hoping that effort put him right. Not a full bet given my unfamiliarity with the old bumping scene so I've put him in a double (as well as a small single) with an old friend from the flat tracker list last year, Roaring Legend,who runs in the Triumph trial that opens the Muss' card on Sunday. I thought RL ran really well on his first go over hurdles at Kempton a fortnight or so ago. The Pumpkin that beat him that day looks a very nice type and the fat man is not dicking about with him, putting him away maybe for chasing? next year.
