The beginning of yet another week, Dear Reader, and today I’m going to quickly review the weekend racing action, take a look forward at what I have planned for SkyBlueKangaroo this week, and also give you a pointer towards a race at the Cheltenham Festival.
The Victor Chandler Chase was my feature race of the weekend, and I had picked out Fix The Rib as a good chance for a place behind Twist Magic, and at a decent double figure price. Disappointingly he was scratched from the race on Saturday morning. The contest was won convincingly by Twist Magic to underline his position as leading contender in the field against Master Minded for the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Whilst we are on the subject of the Festival in March, I want to bring to your attention if you were not aware already, the fact that four of the last five runnings of the Champion Bumper have been won by the horse with the highest Racing Post rating. As I write this post the mare Araucaria has the highest RP rating obtained in a National Hunt flat race with a mark of 132.
You can back her at 16/1 with a few firms at the moment, and I think this represents some pretty good value. When I spotted the mare’s figures it did get me trying to remember when was the last time either a filly or a mare won the race. Hairy Molly sprang to mind as the champion in 2006 but on checking the formbook I was surprised to find that Hairy Molly was actually a gelding… not ‘whole’ granted, but not a horse of the female persuasion neither!
Going back further a couple of years to 2004 I found the finish was disputed by two mares, namely Total Enjoyment and Refinement, with the former taking the spoils by two and a half lengths. Refinement returned a year later to finish fourth in the same race, ridden by none other than Kieron Fallon.
So I think you could do worse than take a little of that 16/1 about Araucaria to win the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham come March.
What do I have lined up for this week on SkyBlueKangaroo? Well, the review of Betting Against Horses For Profit is ongoing, as is that of Hot Horses. So I shall have updates on both systems.
On Wednesday I have another educational-type post lined up – at least I hope you will find it educational. At any rate, I’ve written it with the intention of imparting some racing and betting experience I hope many of you will find of interest.
This Saturday sees Cheltenham host the Festival trials fixture and there could be plenty of stars on show. Denman was included among the eleven entries for the Argento Chase, the new name of the Cotswold Chase. The Aon Chase on February 13th has also been identified as a potential warm-up race for the Gold Cup contender before the Festival.
I have particular interest in the Cleeve Hurdle as Lie Forrit is engaged and he is my ante-post pick for the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle Final at the Festival.
On Friday I will pick a race to feature from the weekend fixtures, and do some research with the aim of coming up with a good bet.
Before signing off today, a quick word to congratulate Matt Bisogno and the members of the Stowstowquickquickstow Partnership for the performance of Night Orbit this afternoon at Fontwell. He followed the pace admirably (Night Orbit, not Matt!) until around 2 out when either the heavy going or the trip took its toll and he couldn’t maintain the gallop of the leading trio. The horse had none other than Mr McCoy on board, and I should imagine that if Matt per chance got to shake the great man’s hand in the paddock before the race, then that is a hand that Matt will not allow near soap for a while to come!
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