Another frustrating day yesterday as for the second day
running a poor start cost both tips their chance. Griggy and Sea Fox both made
eye catching progress however, so I urge you to keep them onside next time.
We live
and learn, which is what this time of the year is all about and I learnt
yesterday that The Lir Jet is a two year old to follow. Michael Bell isn’t
necessarily known for his sharp two year olds but he can certainly handle them
that is for sure and this lad looks well above average. The ground was quick at
Yarmouth yesterday but he still broke the track record which is a fair
achievement on debut and given his Dad was a Royal Ascot winner, you certainly
wouldn’t want to write him off at this stage to achieve the same feat.
Onto
today though and I have come up with four tips today as I am glutton for
punishment. My best bet has to be MALOTRU
in the Pavilion Stakes for Marco Botti. A classy two year who looks to have
trained on, stays 7f and handles an artificial surface, he ticks all the boxes.
The key to this race is the ability to stay due to it being a slow surface at
Newcastle and a lot of these are speedballs who would really appreciate 5f on
turf so the advantage should lie with my selection as he returned to win easily
over 7f in a good race at Lingfield. He’s a strong fancy and I’m relying on him
to recoup my points losses over the past 2 days.
Later
on the card at Newcastle, I quite fancy ZABEEL
STAR to go close in the 2 mile handicap. A win in a jumpers bumper over
course and distance clearly prompted connections to try their hand back on the
level as he ran back here just a few weeks after. He finished a close 5th but
you can mark that up as he was the only one off the pace to make any sort of
impression on the race and a similar effort will see him go close here.
Down at
Newmarket, I will be taking a lot of notes on the novice and maiden action
rather than betting on it and will instead take a punt on a few handicappers
who I think have been overlooked.
Firstly,
it seems to be all or nothing with DRUMMOND
WARRIOR as he burst onto the scene last year before bombing out at the end
of the season. He has undergone wind surgery over the winter and his trainer is
a pretty shrewd operator so I wouldn’t be surprised if he has plenty of mileage
in his current mark. Around 18/1 at the time of writing he rates a good poke
each way.
George
Boughey has made an impressive start to his training career and I quite like
the chances of his INVOLVED. Previously
with Daniel Kubler, he showed a bit of promise on a sound surface when winning
at Chester but he has been beaten by the surface on more than one occasion
previous to that. There has been some rain about in the past 24 hours but I
hope it remains decent at Newmarket for this lad to show his best. James Doyle
has been booked so I would be more than hopeful that this isn’t a trial run.
Newcastle 3.55 – Malotru – 3pt win
Newmarket 4.45 – Drummond Warrior 0.5pts e/w
Newcastle 5.40 – Zabeel Star – 1pt win
Newmarket 6.30 – Involved – 1pt win
