A decent midweek card from Wincanton and Un Anjou can race from the same mark as when worn down close home at Worcester last time. This easy two miles should suit but Quite By Chance (1.20) showed more than enough on his chase debut at Stratford to suggest he was up to winning off his current mark and many of the Colin Tizzard string have improved for their seasonal reappearance.
The form of Dance Floor King's Towcester success earlier in the month has been franked by the subsequent Leicester success of the runner up but she is 10lbs higher and is not certain to be as effective on today's softer ground.
The Novices' Hurdle which follows is a fascinating race with Well Rewarded making his debut over timber after an excellent debut last term in a Stratford bumper. Despite tasting success in the finale at Doncaster on Monday the Emma Lavelle stable have been quiet however and the gelding is overlooked for It's a Close Call (1.50) for Paul Nicholls and Sam Twiston-Davies. The selection was purchased for new connections after make a winning debut in a point-to-point over in Ireland and looks set to give the yard further success after an excellent weekend at Cheltenham's Open Meeting.
Wincanton is supported by excellent NH cards at Market Rasen and Chepstow; with flippers not required but most definitely welcomed at the latter with the ground currently soft to heavy in places. David Pipe's Taj Badalandabad (12.40) has already shown his ability to handle testing ground when winning by 12l on soft ground at Ffos Las in the spring and gets the nod to shed the maiden tag over timber in the opener. He ran an excellent fourth on his seasonal beau earlier this month at Wetherby, when the stable wasn't firing, and he and Tom Scudamore can get the better of Venetia Williams' Lochnagar and Jeremy Scott's Geton Xmoor.
Scott's Gunna be a Devil (1.40) remains unexposed despite being a 10-y-o having just his tenth career start in the handicap chase over three miles and can record a third career success under conditional jockey Matt Griffiths, who is excellent value for his 3lb claim. The selection has twice won over the extended three miles, winning after a 234-day absence at Exeter and doing likewise after being off the track over two years last year at Warwick and he can defy another long absence to get his head in front once more.
Market Rasen boasts two excellent handicaps with Charlie Longsdon's Shantou Magic heading the weights for the feature handicap chase and Harry Fry's Henryville doing likewise in the feature handicap hurdle over three miles. The latter runs from a career-high mark of 152 and has to be opposed on the forecast soft ground with David Pipe's Home Run (2.05) fancied to land the spoils on his first run of the season from a feather weight of ten stone.
The Premier League returns this weekend but for one lucky Sheffield student the midweek international friendlies changed her life. We had a lucky postgraduate student place a £5 accumulator (ten-fold) on the Tuesday evening friendlies and retiring for the evening she knew eight of the ten had obliged. When Uruguay scored a late winner in Chile in the early hours of Wednesday morning all she needed was a draw in the big one Panama v Canada and she would be over £50,000 richer. She couldn't sleep, naturally, and the game ended 0-0. Few football fans will remember the goalless draw between Panama and Canada with quite the same affection as one lucky Sheffield student.
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