Monday 1 March
IRELAND'S EYE
Starting next week we will be setting our sights on the Festival (Cheltenham that is) and we will be looking at where the value lies on the DAQ where we hop eo unearth a few longer priced winners.
Hereford and Plumpton are the two National Hunt fixtures for punters to ‘chew over’ today while the all weather action is at Wolverhampton. A former Tom Mullins trained runner is given the nod to score at the second opo for his new trainer in a Hereford handicap hurdle today while a former winning point mare can land a Plumpton handicap chase off bottom weight.
Saver Tooman Lane (8/1) victory in the handicap chase at Clonmel yesterday proved our sole success on the day with another saver King Of The Refs (11/8-11/10) taking third spot in the Leopardstown opener. Nevertheless we did record two from 2 in our back up service when Won In The Dark (5/6) landed a hurdle in style and Quartetto (5/2-9/4) took a novice chase at Leopardstown and Clonmel respectively.
Six time flat scorer Action Impact may not be an original selection but the likely favourite should make it third time lucky over hurdles in the opener at Plumpton today at 2-20.
Rated 80 on the flat the Philip Hide ridden 6yo showed that he can handle a soft surface by taking the placed money behind the useful Quantitativeeasing in a Class 3 hurdle at Newbury before failing to justify favouritism by a couple of lengths in a Huntingdon 2m 1f novice almost five weeks ago. With those runs ‘under his belt’ the Moore runner can account for the former Susan Finn trained Owner Occupier. The latter displayed some ability in bumpers and on the flat and though he showed little on a spin on the all weather on latest he does have the advantage of run over hurdles and the Chris Gordon trained 5yo could be open to progression for his new yard.
Root Cause has only landed one career win when trained by Tom Mullins in Ireland but the 7yo looks worth a wager to make it 2 in the 4-00 at Hereford today – a 2m 1f hc hurdle. A winner of a Tramore 2m 1f maiden hurdle some 16 months ago on yielding to soft the Linamix gelding has run fairly well in handicaps in the main and off a mark of 110 he should be capable of proving competitive and his debut for the Donald McCain yard which saw him finish a close third to a fair sort in Benmadigan (rec 4lbs) in a Carlisle handicap hurdle on fast ground five months ago. Softer ground should see him go close here under Jason Maguire and he can beat the consistent Venetia Williams trained El Distintivo who has been running consistently for his new yard since showing fair and winning form in South America.
Former Lemonfield point winner Portrait Royale does not boast the most impressive course record at Plumpton (record reads 5UPP) but the 8yo boasts a decent record when fresh and the Newton-Smith trained runner gets our vote to land the 3m 2f amateur riders hc chase at the track today at 4-20. Running off bottom weight of 10-0 and with the useful 7lb claim of Harry Challoner the daughter of Portrait Gallery can finally ‘break her duck’ at this track and in the process secure her second career victory and second handicap chase (opened account when landing 3m 1f Folkestone chase on penultimate outing) with trip/ground to suit despite the fact that she is now 11lbs higher in the weights since her sole victory.
2-30 PLUMPTON – 2m 1f hc chase
Oliver Sherwoods ROUGE ET BLANCS showed promise in his native France and the 5yo would rate a confident bet on his close second to yesterdays Grade 2 National Spirit hurdle winner Trenchant on his debut for the yard over a year ago and though he fell on his chase debut when last seen some 4 months ago the Leighton Aspell ridden gelding is given the vote to beat the bottom weight and 4 time course winner Ede’s.
4-50 PLUMPTON – 2m 5f mares hc hurdle
An open looking affair but the one who arguably has the more improvement to come is the Paul Webber trained EDGEVINE and though she is making her seasonal debut here under Will Kennedy she may prove a better bet that top weight Gentle Caribou.
ADVICE
BET 4pt win (nap) ACTION IMPACT 2-20 Plumpton
BET 2pt win (saver) OWNER OCCUPIER 2-20 Plumpton
BET 4pt win ROOT CAUSE 4-00 Hereford
BET 2pt (saver) EL DISTINTIVO 4-00 Hereford
BET 4pt win PORTRAIT ROYALE 4-20 Plumpton
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