Hi all,
Inside Saturday’s Sandown Tingle Creek Day Preview, I delve into the best of today’s action from the Surrey track. Fingers crossed the track passes it's precautionary morning inspection.
The winter weather means National Hunt racing has been taking hammering in the last week. Last weekend it was frost and snow. This weekend its rain and waterlogged tracks that’s exercising punter. Next week it will no doubt be back to frost threatening the weekend’s action.
Cancellations are mounting up with Saturday’s Wetherby card the latest. Chepstow faces a Saturday morning inspection to see if racing can ahead after heavy rain on Thursday. Sandown might also be forced to inspect so Tingle Creek Day isn’t totally safe.
Sandown’s hurdles track is likely to be very testing if they do manage to race. That means the participation of Constitution Hill in the re scheduled Fighting Fifth Hurdle isn’t guaranteed. With trainer Nicky Henderson telling the Racing Post that they won’t risk running him if the ground became “attritional”. Getting back home to watch the replays I have to say it looked pretty “attritional” at Sandown on Friday.
There is good news amidst the gloom, there’s no inspection planned for Aintree. That means Becher Chase Day should go off without a hitch. Now all we have to be worried about is low sun turning the meeting into yet another Aintree farce.
Sandown Tingle Creek Day
Looking at the Grade 1’s on Tingle Creek Day.
Constitution Hill wins the Fighting Fifth (1:15) if he runs. He’s fine on heavy ground but it’s a question if the trainer wants him to run on what will be close to bottomless ground.
JPR One is going to be a warm order in the first Grade 1 novice chase run in Britain this season the . I’m taking him on with Colonel Harry. I gave this one a favourable mention in Wednesday column. I commented that day that I thought 7/2 was decent value against the favourite and you can back him at 9/2 with Paddy Power.
Jonbon is a very short price to win the Tingle Creek Chase (3:00) and indeed a worthy favourite at 4/11. If the 7-year-old is in the same form as when winning the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham he wins. Last year’s winner Edwardstone is a big price at 5/1 and is 2-2 at Sandown but he looks well held by the favourite on their Shloer Chase running. If there’s one who could improve to finish second, its Haddex Des Obeaux. He’ll like the ground and if he gets into a good jumping rhythm I can see him producing his best performance. That said It won’t be good enough to beat an inform Jonbon.
Fontaine Collonges is just 1lb above his last winning mark, goes well fresh and loves the mud. He’s a worthy favourite for the London National Handicap Chase (3:35). That said I haven’t tipped him. In the end I went with Certainly Red even though I’m not sure he wants really testing ground.
Aintree
In terms of betting opportunities, the Aintree card holds more appeal than Sandown. Ashtown Lad stands out as a strong contender for the Becher Chase (2:05), being just 2lb higher than last year's winning mark and has been trained for one race, this one. Priced at 5/1, he'd be a tempting choice, but my preference currently lies with Highland Hunter and last year's third, Percussion. The concern with Percussion is the heavy ground, if you fancy Ashtown Lad I wouldn't put you off him. I have a lingering feeling that I might regret not backing him at 4/1 in hindsight as he looks so obvious.
Saturday Selection:
Sandown
1:50 – Colonel Harry – 9/2 @ Paddy Power.
Good luck with your Saturday bets.
John
Hi John,
Nicky Henderson has been complaining that there simply isn’t a race that Shishkin can enter before christmas following his refusal 2 weeks ago, and so he is throwing him into the re-scheduled Fighting Fifth hurdle in heavy ground. Surely, the Grade 2 Peterbrough Chase at Huntingdon tomorrow would be perfectly suitable wouldn’t it? Or how about some of the top class chases in Ireland over the last fortnight. What are your thoughts please?
Hi Jeremy,
Totally agree.
I can understand why he wouldn’t travel over to Ireland. But the Peterborough Chase would have been a good fit for Shishkin. He’s even won at Huntingdon over hurdles. Granted he would have been giving weight away to his rivals but would have won. Running in the Fighting Fifth was going to be a mere schooling exercise and he wouldn’t have subjected to hard race to try to finish second.
Any excuse not to jump a hurdle in the first at Navan.
2 missed due to wind!?
Not windy anywhere else on the track, just those 2 hurdles!
Getting more laughs with jump racing than from a Ken Dodd Christmas special!
Haha… I missed another comedy moment. Oh I’am sure we can look forward to obstacles being missed out for wind this side of the Irish Sea.