Saturday 2nd March

Good Morning to everyone, I hear the weather back in sunny old England has improved, at least in Doncaster anyway. They actually have firm in their going description yesterday! They race again today with a good card featuring the Grimthorpe Chase and at Newbury we have the Greatwood Gold Cup. There is also a good supporting card up over the border at Kelso where they go to post for the Premier Kelso hurdle, won last year by Tap Night. They also race at Lingfield and in Ireland at Navan.

I hope you have all been enjoying the Cheltenham Festival previews I have been putting up lately, judging by my twitter you have been. Its hard to believe that I fly back on Tuesday, but enough of that, lets look back at last week. Annoyingly Newcastle was abandoned about 10 minutes after I finished writing, id be lying if I said that a few rude words didn't leave my mouth. We were still in the winners at Kempton however with Forgotten Voice and Irish Saint while Molotof, Milarrow and Picansort all placed for us. with that we just about made a profit and continue to line our pockets for Cheltenham.

One more word about last week, as you will have noticed if you watched the Racing Plus Chase, Mister Hyde unseated Maurice Linehan at the first. He is a young jockey that I give plenty of coverage on here and to the eye, the fall wall sickening. It turns out in the fall he broke two Vertebrae and his chest bone, id like to wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back soon. Another truly awful mention before we start with this week. We all know Clifford Baker as Kauto Star's stable lad, but on Thursday night his family was ripped apart. On his way home from work his 21 year old son was in a car accident which tragically cost him his life. It really puts things into perspective, racing is a wonderful sport, but behind the scenes these are real people just living their lives. Im sure you will all join me in offering condolences to Clifford and his family. R.I.P Dominic Baker.


On that sad note we will continue our weekly ritual and 5 selections this week across the cards.


2:20 Doncaster - Toubab

Toubab was a selection when he last ran at Sandown but was a bit disappointing when really not going in the ground at all. A return to some good ground should see the galloping grey return to form today. Jumping has never really been too much of a problem for him as he is usually very accurate at his fences, so that isn't a worry at all. The only worry is that he doesn't always find too much off the bridle, at a course like Doncaster that is a bit more of a worry. Saying that, he does look a bit better than the others here and could well be classy enough to win with his head in his chest under Ruby Walsh. As usual Paul Nicholls' yard are in top form and with a winner in Empire Levant here yesterday Toubab can land this one. (7/4)

2:50 Lingfield - Mary's Pet

A bit of an unusual one as I rarely put up flat horse, especially during National Hunt season. Mary's Pet is an exception to this rule and is one I have been following for a while now through my At The Races tracker. She is without a win since last May but as a result has been tumbling down the weights with some good performances put in there. She last won off a rating of 54, officially she is rated 52 now but with Aaron Chave's claim she runs off a mark of 45. The young jockey hasn't yet ridden a winner but last time he rode Mary's Pet they set a blistering pace, only to be caught late on. That was over 7 furlongs and the 6 furlongs today will be more to suit with her cheek pieces fitted as usual. She is also already a dual course and distance winner at Lingfield and it would be no surprise to see money for her in the morning. Off her lowest ever mark by far she can take the spoils this afternoon. (7/1)

2:55 Doncaster - Mr Moonshine

Mr Moonshine is one of two horses Sue Smith sends to Doncaster today and its notable that she has booked Wayne Hutchinson on board for both. Usual stable jockey Ryan Mania stays up in Kelso to ride Aurora's Encore. The selection has made a few appearances in this blog however and always runs his race over the more extreme trips. Its his form last time out that stands above the rest to me however, he was second to the Argento winner Cape Tribulation at Wetherby. He was in receipt of 5 pounds that day and was beaten 11 lengths which on paper doesn't look very good. But watch the race and his jumping was nowhere near what he can produce, I'm certain that the better ground will help him with that today. Annoyingly Pricewise has tipped him up resulting in us losing a couple of points from his odds, but if he wins we wont complain. So with no horses the standard of Cape Tribulation in the field, Mr Moonshine is the selection. (13/2)

3:40 Kelso - Eduard

Eduard is one of Nicky Richards stable stars right now, the other being Duke Of Navan. He came up a bit short against Melodic Rendezvous at Cheltenham earlier in the year, but that is hardly a negative. Go back a bit further in the season you will find himself and ifandbutwhynot were separated by a head, which he came out worse of. Richards has since said he will be stepping up in trip after this to two and a half miles, so the small step up in trip is no bad thing whatsoever. We also know that he handles softer ground very well and carrying 3 pounds less than Brick Red should have no problems winning here. A strong bet but the odds reflect that. (Evens)

4:15 Kelso - Harry Topper

Kim Bailey's Gelding has surprisingly been one of the best Novices of the season over staying trips, dismissing of high profile types such as Rocky Creek and Highland Lodge. Over hurdles he was fairly modest with a mark of 135, He has already earned himself the mark of 154 over fences and is still improving rapidly. This is the first time he takes on seasoned chasers and there are some useful performers in there, none better than Bold Sir Brian. He took a very heavy fall at Cheltenham last time and the worst was feared for a little while, thankfully he got up after a brief lay down. If there are no repercussions of that fall he is a big threat to the selection off level weights. I just feel that Harry Topper will be a much better horse than Bold Sir Brian who is fairly exposed now. The novice gets the nod to round off this weekends blog. (11/8)


NAP -  Eduard
NB - Mr Moonshine

To be fair im very confident about all of today's selections running big races and wouldn't discourage anyone from backing them. That concludes this weeks blog folks, next weekend I will be attending the Imperial Cup meeting at Sandown, come say hi if you are there.

Have a good day of betting and lets line our pockets for Cheltenham.

Happy punting