The selection looks the best equipped of the five runners for a race in which speed as well as stamina will be necessaryThe big names, and only the big names, have turned up for Haydock’s Betfair Chase but plenty of recent rain would have made it more competitive. As it is, Might Bite (3.00) looks easily the best equipped of the five runners for a race in which speed as well as stamina will be necessary.Bristol De Mai outslogged his rivals a year ago, while endurance was the quality that won Native River his Gold Cup. But a surface that is mainly good and drying out should play to the strengths of Might Bite, whose two spring Grade One wins...
His first Derby winner was an expensive experience for some but it’s easy to admire the retiring Newmarket trainerAch, what a pity that Luca Cumani’s final runner could not be a winner. Swansdown finished strongly but too late at Wolverhampton last night, giving the veteran trainer one last taste of the job’s frustrations. Perhaps that’ll make it very marginally easier for him to walk away. Related: William Hill in goodwill gesture after punter’s SP complaint by Chris Cook Continue reading...
This weekend’s compelling Betfair Chase now has a full complement of star horses and their regular ridersWhen you’re a jump jockey with the chance to ride a Gold Cup horse, you get healthy. And so it is with Nico de Boinville, who has this morning been pronounced fit to ride Might Bite in a classic edition of the Betfair Chase on Saturday, having recovered from the thumb injury which has kept him out for the last three weeks. Related: Tom Scudamore fit and on course to ride Thistlecrack in Betfair Chase Market Rasen 12.25 Dandolo Du Gite 12.55 Keep The River 1.25 Perfect Man 2.00 Earlshill 2.35 Ryalex (nap) 3.05 Hope's Wishes 3.40 Lemon T Wincanton 12.45 Helf 1.15 Zubayr 1.45 Peppay Le Pugh...
Ireland’s jump racing flag-bearer hope Samcro will face dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air in the Fighting Fifth next monthRain arrived in the north-east on Tuesday afternoon and the timing could not have been better, as Newcastle remains on course to stage one of the best jump races in its long history. Samcro, Buveur D’Air and Summerville Boy, who were all Grade One winners at Cheltenham in March, are among the potential runners in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle on 1 December and with the ground starting to ease after one of the driest summers for years, all three could now line up at Gosforth Park next month.A first meeting between Buveur D’Air, the dual Champion Hurdle winner, and Samcro, who...
It may come to pass that good-to-firm will not be acceptable over jumps if racing is to maintain a cost-effective programmeGood-to-firm ground in the middle of November is nobody’s fault, but it has effectively reduced Tuesday’s racing programme to two-and-a-half meetings with – assuming there are no further non-runners – just 26 horses due to go to post for a six-race card at Fakenham. Eight of those are in the opening selling handicap hurdle, while the remaining events have three, five, two, three and five runners, respectively.And yet this is, by about £1,000, the most valuable meeting of the day, with £59,000 up for grabs including no less than £15,800 guaranteed in the beginner’s chase, which attracted three declared runners,...