by Charlie McCann
We are getting to the stage when there are significant daily market movers ahead of the Cheltenham Festival and the best backed horses in the last 24 hours at BetVictor are Barters Hill (9//4 from 5/2) for the Albert Bartlett and Noble Endeavour (7s from 10s) in the NH Chase.
All eyes once again will be focussed on the Hunters’ Chase at Wincanton where dual Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton will ride Pacha Du Polder in the hope that she can persuade connections that she is up to the task of riding at the Cheltenham Festival later in the month.
The first thing I would recommend would be to race more prominently than she did at Fakenham where she unseated having been slightly impeded having jumped a circuit. The horse has 11lbs in hand on official figures but the teenager (14) Big Fella Thanks (3.20) went well for a long way at Wetherby on his comeback and won the corresponding race 12 months ago.
Never Complain was useful in Ireland for Henry de Bromhead and this intermediate 2m 4f trip is ideal; a market move would be worth noting.
Tagrita (3.55) did us a favour last month when landing a nice touch for Paul Nicholls and a 7lb rise looks fair given the similarly well-backed runner up Oscarteea looked potentially well treated. The unexposed Bim Bam Boum could go close despite top-weight for Harry Fry although the form of his latest Taunton run has not been franked.
Vic De Touzaine will have his supporters in the 2m 4f handicap chase but preference is for David Pipe‘s La Vaticane (2.45) blinkered for the first time; the selection has been dropped 1lb for finishing third at Ascot when last seen back in December.
The grey is a dual chase winner in her native France and will be fresher than most given she has had over 10 weeks off; she holds entries in three Festival handicaps and might have to win this afternoon to get into one of the races. Note she is also engaged at Newbury on Saturday.
Soft ground the order of the day at Bangor-One-Dee and if the mare What A Scorcher settles better than she has done on recent starts she will take the beating but Tim Vaughan’s horses have been knocking on the door of late and Beat The Tide (2.00) is taken to break his own frustrating run of seconds. The gelding is a dual winner on the flat and is taken to get a first win over timber with Alan Johns taking off a valuable 5lbs.
At Downpatrick Gordon Elliot bought Carrig Cathal (5.30) for E40,000 after he won a maiden p-t-p back in November and he might be good enough first time out with the yard in such good form with Cheltenham less than a fortnight away. The Willie Mullins trained Master Of Verse has been beaten at 2/7 and Evens in his two Bumper starts and the Elliot horse might turn him over as he looks to make it third time lucky.
At Kempton this evening Buckland Beau is likely to be all the rage as he chases a four-timer and the handicapper could have been harsher than raising him just the 2lbs for his latest success. That said he tackles an extra furlong today and preference is for Music Man (6.45) who ran such a promising race when third coming back from a long break eight weeks ago. Trainer Jo Crowley has given him plenty of time to get over that effort; he runs from the same mark and can reward each way support.
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