An excellent start to Sandown’s two-day Tingle Creek meeting on Friday with the Winter Novices’ Hurdle the feature, won in recent years by the likes of Cheltenham Festival heroes Inglis Drever, Fingal Bay and Taquin De Seuil. Paul Nicholls has won two of the last eight renewals and his in-form stable can taste further success with Tara Point (1.55) taking on the boys under Sam Twiston-Davies.
The selection receives 10lb from likely favourite Vyta Du Roc, who beat Nicholls’ inmate Emerging Talent on bottomless ground last month at Cheltenham’s Open Meeting and the yard should know where they stand with their mare. The 5-y-o has made steady improvement from winning in point-to-point, bumper and a novice hurdle on her last three starts and looked better than ever when shedding the maiden tag over timber last month at Exeter. She can continue the Ditcheat-handler’s excellent form en-route to plenty of further black-type thereafter.
The pair can double up with Black Thunder (2.30) in the Intermediate Chase, taken to give weight and a beating to his three rivals. The selection beat subsequent Hennessy winner Many Clouds on his second start over fences last term at Haydock and has progressed with every start thereafter. He ran a blinder under Nick Schofield in the United House Gold Cup at Ascot and looks to have been well-placed to return to winning ways and pick up a nice £17,000 pot.
There’s no hotter yard than the Tom George stable, three winners from the trainer’s last five runners and his Ballyallia Man (3.00) will take all of the beating in the John Dunson Memorial Cup. The race is limited to amateur riders’ and champion point-to-point jockey Will Biddick looks a very eye-catching jockey booking. The selection made a winning return to action last month at Wincanton, winning impressively by 6l and can defy an 11lb hike at the weights.
There’s action down at Exeter and a terrific renewal of the Harry Duffield Memorial Novices’ Chase. An exciting trio of Saphir Du Rheu, Horizontal Speed and Deputy Dan (1.10) all go to post, with the latter fancied to score under a 5lb penalty. Oliver Sherwood’s 6-y-o beat Paul Nicholls’ 144-rated Far West on just his second start over the larger obstacles last month at Plumpton, jumping right-handed on the second circuit and likely to thrive going the ‘right way round’ at Exeter. Nicholls’ Saphir Du Rheu was the highest rated of the three over hurdles but unseated his rider on his debut over fences last month and has plenty to prove after his Newbury disappointment.
Venetia Williams’s horses are slowly creeping into form and the stable can celebrate further success in the Devon Marathon. The race isn’t for the faint-hearted; a gruelling handicap chase over four miles and recent scorer Gorgehous Lleige (3.20) fancied to follow-up his recent Southern National success at Fontwell. He was value for more than his narrow length success that day, with jockey Liam Treadwell produced a tremendous sit two-out to stay on board the 8-y-o, and he can defy a 9lb rise under regular pilot Aidan Coleman.
Marcus Tregoning’s filly Biretta is respected with a run under her belt in the closing bumper however preference lay with his Wishfull Dreaming (3.50) for the team of Phillip Hobbs and Richard Johnson. The selection is a half-brother to the stable’s superstar chaser Wishfull Thinking and warrants maximum respect for a combination that have a profitable record to level stakes at the track and remain in excellent form thus far this season, operating at a 27% strike-rate since October.
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