CHELTENHAM NH FESTIVAL 2019 -- TUESDAY 12th MARCH (CHAMPION HURDLE DAY)

NOT MUCH ROOM TO MOVE IN HERE

Welcome to the opening day of the 2019 Cheltenham Festival, the Gloucestershire course will be expecting over 250,000 people over the duration of the meeting, and that will include a capacity 70,000+ on Friday for Gold Cup Day itself. It's the best meeting in the country and top class NH Racing anywhere, although you will not be able to move for the amount of Irish people this week.

CHELTENHAM NH FESTIVAL– TUESDAY MARCH 12th 2019
1.30pm 2m 110yds Supreme Novices Hurdle	Supreme Novices Hurdle  Day one, Race one, of the 2019 NH Festival and we're off... The Supreme novices hurdles gets us under way,with a strong field of 18 declared to begin with as the battle between UK and Ireland is declared. The home side will have ANGELS BREATH up against the Irish KLASSICAL DREAM and the pair are expected to be there over the last.  At a massive price (100/1 shot) going to have a small bet on TOKAY DOKEY to place . Updates throughout the week. Result -- 1st; KLASSICAL DREAM 6/1. Nice to start the meeting with a winner
2.10pm 2m Arkle Chase	Arkle Challenge Trophy Next is the Arkle Chase, named after the famous Gold Cup winner from the mid 1960s a field of 12 to pick through looks more open than recent wins by Footpad and Altior in fact the last four favourites have won all at odds-on.  LALOR has been all the rage this season but I feel this is his biggest test on ground not ideal. My fancy is GLEN FORSA here for the team that gave us a big win with Mister Whitaker at last years festival.  The Irish challenge is strong although no stand out fancy will go with DUC DES GENIEVRES [WON 5/1] who appears to be getting it together at the right time now winning a big field chase by 15L.  Result -- 1st; DUC DES GENIEVRES 5/1.  Two from Two ... happy
2.50pm 3m 1f Festival H'cap Chase	Festival Handicap Chase  The first big chase of the festival with 26 runners declared and market looks wide open at about 7/1 the field. It's a good chance for our friend MISTER WHITAKER to claim another valuable festival win today and this 7yo should find plenty up the hill.  Last years winner COO STAR SIVOLA reappears and shouldn't be underestimated although this looks tougher. If the rain comes then VINTAGE CLOUDS [2nd 16/1] can be of interest at 33/1 in the place markets.  Result -- 1st; BEWARE THE BEAR 10/1.
3.30pm 2m 110yds Champion Hurdle	Champion Hurdle  The opening day's feature race is of course the Champion Hurdle and this year we're missing a few of the big guns from recent years but there's still a quality field. Last years winner BUVEUR D'AIR (FELL) lines up again in great form and will a very short price to repeat his success of twelve months ago despite a surprise defeat over Christmas will be 100% for this event. The strongest opponent is the mare APPLES JADE who is four from four this season and has a useful 7lb weight allowance, while I don't expect this to be a 'match' the rest are about 10/1 bar these two. Laurina I would have expected to see contest the mares hurdle later on but her she is, although I fear out of her depth against the front pair.  Result -- 1st; ESPOIR D'ALLEN 16/1.
4.10pm 2m 4f Mares Hurdle	"David Nicholson" Mares Hurdle (2m 4f) The Mares Hurdle is a Grade 2 hurdle run over run over two miles and about four and a half furlongs. It is open to mares only, aged five and above .  Willie Mullins has a strong team and will probably have the short priced favourite with BENIE DES DIEUX (FELL) although at the price might be one for the accumulates this week and is probably the reason that Laurina tries he luck in the Champion Hurdle instead.  All the dangers to the favourite are also trained by Willie Mullins which includes the likes of Limini, Stormy Island and Elimay.  The consistent form of JESTER JET makes that one a viable place option but the fav does look fairly bomb proof. Result -- 1st; ROKSANA 10/1.
4.50pm 2m 4f Novices Chase	Close Brothers Novices Handicap Chase (2m 4f) Our penultimate race on the opening day is a novices chase over 2 1/2 miles, where we have a field of 20 declared. .  Had a nice winner in this last year and hopefully we can find the winner again today. Top weight HIGHWAY ONE O ONE jumps well, has winning form and should make a bold bid here, along with the handicap debut of TOWER BRIDGE a decent hurdler in good hands under trainer JP O'Brien and might be worth sticking with over fences.  QUAMINO at 20/1 looks interesting too. Result -- 1st; A PLUS TARD 5/1F.
5.30pm 4m NH Chase (Amateur Riders)	Toby Balding National Hunt Handicap Chase (4m) The National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup is a Class B chase run over four miles. It is the oldest race at the festival and is open to novices aged five years old and upwards, all horses are ridden by amateur jockeys who have to be Category B (Britain) and Category C (Ireland) riders to take part in the race.  Looking at the jockey bookings here amongst the 18 runners, makes us want to short list BALLYWARD [Willie Mullins] and OK CORAL [Nicky Henderson]. Don't exclude the bottom weight, ATLANTA ABLAZE, the only mare in the field and has one of the top amateur jockeys on board, stays well, and 16/1 looks big. Result -- 1st; LE BREUIL 14/1.  Enjoy your Cheltenham Festival this week.

Good Luck today 
The days results should appear during the course of the afternoon. 
Two winners from Two to kick off, a nice start so far

With Wednesdays details updated and published soon too. Enjoy.

SANDOWN PARK RACES -- IMPERIAL CUP SATURDAY 9th MARCH 2019

Matchbook Imperial Cup Day 2019

With only a few days till this years Cheltenham Festival we have a wonderful warm up with the annual Sandown Park Imperial Cup meeting. We will have 7 races taking place on Matchbook Imperial Cup day featuring two Grade 3 hurdles and a listed National Hunt flat race. The Imperial Cup was first run in 1907 and was considered the most important and prestigious hurdle race of the season right up until the launch of the Champion hurdle at Cheltenham in 1927. The last two winners of this race – London Prize and Mr Antolini – didn’t go onto run at the Cheltenham Festival while Flying Angel (winner in 2016) finished runner up in the Martin Pipe Conditional race so you have to go back to Gaspara (below in 2007) to find the last winner of this to go on and gain success at the Festival picking up a nice bonus in the process.

GASPARA WINNING IN 2007

A £100,000 bonus is again up for grabs for winners of this race to go on and win next week at the festival, the likes of Olympian [1993], Blowing Wind [1998] and Gaspara [2007] have all gone on to win at the Cheltenham Festival after winning here at Sandown Park, all three trained by the legendary Martin Pipe/David Pipe yard. Can his son David win this with the lightly weighted 5yo EXTRA MAG (Tom Scudamore riding off 10 stone, no breakfast for Mr Scu) we shall see. Last year the race was won by Mr Antolini [20/1] ridden by Jamie Bargary and trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies who had to survive a stewards inquiry too, so who will be victorious this year?

Here's a summary of the afternoon's card with our thoughts and selections so have a great day and win yourself some money for Cheltenham which of course begins on Tuesday. 

Sandown Park
Going: Good to Soft - Soft in places

13:20
Matchbook Betting Exchange Juvenile Handicap Hurdle 
(4yo, Class 3, 1m 7f 216y, 7 runners)
Our opening race for today is for four year olds and has a small field of 7 runners for the trip of just under two miles. A contest won last year by the Gary Moore yard they run TWENTY TWENTY [4th 16/1] in an attempt to repeat that feat and should go well for Jamie Moore. 

Of the others here the biggest danger appears to be THE KNOT IS TIED [2nd 6/4] who has been runner up on his last two outings and will likely go off as favourite.

13:50
European Breeders' Fund Matchbook VIP 'National Hunt' Novices' Handicap Hurdle Final (Grade 3) (4yo to 7yo, Class 1, 2m 3f 173y, 18 runners)
A big field here with 18 contesting the final of this event, headed by ONE FOR ROSIE one of two declared for Nigel Twiston-Davies with MURATELLO also towards the head of the weights, they might find this tough if the going still remains "soft". Nicky Henderson always going to be feared here and should have a live chance with both MILL GREEN [4th 14/1] and BEFORE MIDNIGHT [13th 8/1]. 

My selection will be the bottom one, DIOMEDE DES MOTTES [16th 16/1] from the Dan Skelton yard, 20/1 shot, lightly weighted, ridden by Harry Skelton should run a decent race and a player in the place markets at very least.

14:25
Matchbook IMPERIAL CUP Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3) 
(4yo+, Class 1, 1m 7f 216y, 16 runners)
Our feature race today, over two miles, will be surely run at a furious pace even on soft ground. A race that revolves around Nicky Henderson who has declared top weight CALL ME LORD and also has the inform DREAM DU GRAND VAL in the line up, expecting plenty of money for the latter who has looked a decent prospect since his British debut. 

Martin Pipe used to have a good record in this, and his son David is due a decent handicapper so maybe his 5yo EXTRA MAG [Non Runner] can take this with only 10-0 to carry and hope to get an entry in the Cheltenham handicaps (County Hurdle perhaps).

STORM RISING [4th 20/1] is the interesting outsider for me trained by Dr Newland and a 5lb claimer helps too.

15:00
EBF Stallions/TBA Mares' Standard Open NH Flat Race 
(Listed) (4yo to 6yo, Class 1, 1m 7f 216y, 11 runners)
A listed flat race in the middle of the card is up next, and although half the field have yet to pick up a race one that certainly has (winning three from four) is the Paul Nicholls trained SILVER FOREVER [2nd 11/8F] and that seems to be the one most likely here today. 

15:35
Matchbook Racing Is Commission Free Handicap Chase 
(5yo+, Class 3, 3m 37y, 12 runners)
The hurdles are away following the previous bumper race so we are left with three chases now. This will take some getting in the soft ground but the likes of FAVORITO BUCKS [pulled up 8/1] and KANSAS CITY CHIEF [Non runner] are our pair against the field. .

16:10
Matchbook Betting Podcast Novices' Limited Handicap Chase 
(5yo+, Class 3, 2m 4f 10y, 6 runners)
A small field of six for this limited handicap and one where there are not a lot of previous recent winners in the line up. One that has at least shown some signs of ability is BANDSMAN [pulled up 20/1] although his last run was too bad to be true and will give this Dan Skelton inmate the benefit of the doubt unless this run is similar. -- Clearly something gone wrong with this one after another poor effort.

16:45
Commission Free Racing At Matchbook Handicap Chase 
(5yo+, Class 3, 2m 4f 10y, 5 runners)
The finale only has attracted a small field of five where THE KINGS WRIT [2nd 13/8F] looks sure to be popular and has winning form on the soft going. 

Hope you have a good afternoon, and are all set for next week's Cheltenham Festival. We will have a blog entry for each day and covering all the races so hope you will return and check that out. Day One - Champion Hurdle Blog will appear here on Monday night. 

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2019 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #6 6th MARCH

Back we come for the next instalment of what I hope will prove to be a productive year throughout 2019.

We've passed the end of February already and as we enter March with spring in the air and the Cheltenham Festival on the horizon it's pleasing me that we still in touch with the racing and not cast adrift like last year. The turf flat season will also be appearing soon too and in the meantime we are back to focus on the all weather horse racing now while the lights still shine brightly here at Kempton Park throughout this year. We are hopeful of better season than we experienced last year but it's just some fun and excitement to mix up the week we have started the first quarter well though so it's positive thus far. 

Lets continue with our sixth Wednesday night of 2019, and will continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting though we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if there is one available. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1 point level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds than this but for the purpose of these results here we simply record SP returns only. 

Following a mixed bag of results last week we lost 1.75 points to SP and are therefore slightly down by -0.75 points to SP returns. But I'm fine with it so far given 2 months have elapsed and how bad last year was for us. 

Once more this year we will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of anticipated short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures we have been fairly successful with our selections so far and are 4/5 alas the 100% record went with an odds on favourite winning last time but it's still a good strike rate and we will continue into 2019. 

This Wednesday will be meeting number six for the 2019 AW season and we are expecting an eight race card tonight with five handicaps this week for us to look through and enjoy,  the action which will commence at 16:55 with a mile and one furlong handicap contest and the card ends around about 20:30 with division two of the six furlong handicap.

Here's a link to this Wednesday's race card; RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a cold day with good chance of showers. A top temperature will only be about 14C by the time the meeting gets underway so please wrap up warm, take a brolly and a hip flask too.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

16:55 -- 1m 1f 219y Handicap.
We open tonight with an interesting handicap with only seven runners but two in form candidates. MATTERHORN [WON 8/11F] and EXECUTIVE FORCE [2nd 4/1] both having won their last four outings I would be surprised if the winner didn't come from this pair tonight.

17:30 -- 1m Handicap.
Our next event is over a mile, quite open aside from the top weight JAI HANUMAN [LAY] who we are going to oppose tonight. We looking at a couple of runners up from their last outings and if MADAME JO JO [11th 25/1] / AHFAD [5th 16/1] can time their final runs a little better they could be capable of a win in this low grade but are priced accordingly. 

19:30 -- 7f Handicap.
A better class now and eleven are declared, you always have to fear a Sir Mark Prescott runner in these handicaps and MASTER DIVER [5th 9/2] has already been winning and placing in this company to be of interest. IN THE RED [3rd 13/2] is a recent course and distance winner rated 3lb higher but worth a shout with Adam Kirby booked to ride.

20:00 -- 6f Handicap (Div One).
The final handicap has been divided and the opening division has a field of nine headed by BEECEEPEE [4th 16/1], a five year old gelding by Henrythenavigator and a regular around Chelmsford so interesting they try this venue for a change. 

Will pair that one with SECRET POTION [3rd 9/1] who has won on the AW off this mark so again a chance taken at 12/1 seems worthwhile.  

20:30 -- 6f Handicap (Div Two).
And the second division of the sprint makes our finale tonight where SECONDO [Non Runner] and MAXIMUM POWER [6th 11/8F] are our selections in what has been a fairly low key meeting all told. 

Staked -- 10 points.

Returns -- 2.73 points.

Results will appear here later on Wednesday night. Last week we lost out by -1.75 points to SP and are therefore slightly down by -0.75 points to SP returns. Very poor tonight, just one odds on winner and one non runner means a loss of -7.27 points and that's now -8.02 down going onto next week.  

LAYS -- 4/5.  Nice start to the year with successful lays in the opening few meetings, just one odds on shot spoiling the perfect record last time, but will see if we can get a couple more beat tonight and improve the record.

Tonight's Lays;
17:30 -- JAI HANUMAN - Won 13/8F.
19:00 -- JAHBATH - Won 8/13F.

Two favs, winning, sad.

Our next meeting for this year will be held on Wednesday 13th March so hope to see you then and throughout 2019 too.