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A short summary of Friday's racing because of B2yoR committments at Goodwood
& Chester. It will be interesting to see what difference the first
sign of easier ground makes to the established form following the rainy
spell (well, day). The Nottingham race looks to be a good opportunity for
Rebel Aclaim to turn her very
good debut into a win. A couple of niggles would be that she is unlikely
to improve much from debut given that her trainer prepares his early debut
runners well. She also looked so at home on faster going, and her sire
Acclamation has made such
a good start druing the dry spell, that she might not be as good if the
going was easier. On the positive side the form she showed FTO would probably
be enough to win this unless there's a very strong newcomers and she battled
well very against the colt Group Therapy when challenged on debut and the
pair pulled away (from some not very good horses admittedly).
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Far Gone and Shamrock
Lady both come from weak races and achieved little despite debut places.
The fifth and seventh from Far Gone's race have been ironed out since in
worse races than this and she put up a staying effort on a stiff Pontefract
track. If the ground were fast you would think that Rebel Acliam would
be just too fast for her. The two most interesting newcomers, aside from
Alizadora dealt with above, are Johar
Jamal & Monday Morning.
The first is owned by Jaber Abdullah and trained by Mick Channon and attention
has been drawn before to how the trainer targets strong debuts from better
types for him. However, in a typical year Mr Channon stores up his
better 2yos that haven't already run to for the second half of May and
early June and they often come with much hype and short prices. Johar Jamal
doesn't excite on pedigree and looks more likely to be a middling debut.
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Mark Wallace has made a typically well targeted start to the season with
5 runners, 4 placed on debut and three of those places turned into STO
wins. Clearly a man who is on top of matters. The other placer was Carolina
Belle who started short priced favourite at Lingfield last week but
finished second in a slowly run race with a bunch finish. She wasn't particuarly
ready for debut but was the best type in the field. Small, but a compact,
'little bull' sprinter set up who should have little difficulty winning
over 5f. But, the lesson to learn is that he gets debut wins with his really
best types who are ready enough. Monday Morning would need to be very good
to beat Rebel Acliam first go if that one comes up to expectations (and
if she doesn't we can put her on the pile over there with Fat Boy, Legendary
Guest, Nacho Libre, etc.)
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Both Lady Sandicliffe &
Validity were seen at the sales
and looked limited to 50s ratings but competitive at their level. Validity
was notably small and similar to her dam who won in March as a 2yo before
finding the opposition too big for her. Altercation
represents Willie Jarvis who has had a win and a good 4th in a strong Newmarket
maiden to date. This is typical for him because his first runners will
be the natural 2yos and he gets them quite ready FTO. THis one is an owner
bred by a sire who gets odd 5f types but likely to be one to assess for
the future.
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The Lingfield race on turf looks a good opportunity for Barraland
to continue his improvement. A heavily built horse but slightly on the
short side he is probably one of the type that Mick Channon starts over
5f when actually he'll be better for 6f+ and later in the season and competes
with the early 5f types because of basic ability (Grantley Adams comes
to mind whenever B2yoR thinks about him). Anyway, he ran better than his
final placing suggests at Pontefract and got market support beforehand.
That race turned into a 4-way battle for the lead all the way up the hill
to the straight and Barraland was 4 wide on this duel throughout. He still
managed an effort to challenge along the straight (hanging left and hampering
rival after rival as he did so) before the pace told on him and Irving
Place in the final furlong to allow trackers and horses from well off the
pace to fill out the first five home.
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Ballinskelligs Boy is
an interesting horse. He only cost 9,000 guineas and his trainer has said
that he has 'turned himself around since the sales'. Having seen him at
Goodwood B2yoR agrees in that he is a good size and well built although
he looked a poor mover behind at the walk. A slow break and inexperience
meant he never got into the race but we have already seen with Avertitop,
Cracking & Romany Princess that a blown debut for a Hannon runner doesn't
mean they are useless. But, you would want to check his movement and see
him place here before he was one to support. Of the others King
Bathwick looked a typical neat type that he sire Golan showed in his
first season last year. He ought to be capable of winning with development.
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Oh, and John Gosden runs Adab who is
owned by Hamdan Al Maktoun who likes his early runners to be competitive
on all evidence. Mr Gosden has given us a skinny duff one with Pixie's
Blue and an average one with Master Chef who was too mentally immature
to do better than a 'tenderly ridden' fifth at Windsor on Monday. He would
have to be very useful and mentally ready to beat Barraland here.
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The Hamilton race lacks a strong runner with a previous outing. With the
five newcomers all coming from well funded stables it seems more likely
that one of them will win. B2yoR hasn't given up on a Howard Johnson winning
debut yet but he apprentice on Royal
Sovereign is a little offputting. Mick Channon has his first runner
for Ahmed Al Maktoum of the year and, similar to Jaber Abdullah, we should
be looking for a debut win from the trainer for this owner from mid month.
The market should tell us whether Meeriss
is the better type here to win or an average type here to place. Now that
Karl Burke has got his 2yos running better you would expect a solid showing
from Johnny Friendly on his
way to a later win. Which means that if Meeriss turns out not to be here
to win then perhaps one of Gin Genereux
or New Colossus will. Preference
would be for the latter who is Eoghan O'Neill's first runner for his boss
John Fretwell who targets 2yo racing (single lime colours these days but
red and black going back to his Bryan McMahon hook-up).
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