A thoroughly downbeat performance from the Donkey yesterday, not enough selections and too many winners seems a glib assessment, but that was the reality. We can’t get a head of steam, tipping fourteen selections in a day and then see four or five of them go in, particularly if one is going to be at 6/1.

That dubious hounour fell to the Belem Ranger in the unlucky last, the Hunter Chase at Sedgefield. Not seen under Rules for well over a year the horse had struggled at Catterick when upped six pounds for winning a middle of the road event at Musselburgh, against horses of a lengthening vintage. Off a similar mark yesterday, we were entitled to believe that on known Rules form, he was about a 6/1 chance and would struggle.

The fact that he had had a sharpener between the flags made it look as though, connections had been eyeing this prize for a while. However, crucially the conditions of good to firm, ensured that the race was run to suit for this son of Presenting. The worthy favourite, Nouveau Maire, ran a brave race, only going down by a length, but a seven pound recent hike, put paid to his chances of building on his most recent success.

Only a few days left to the start of the Flat and I never thought I would be saying this, but I can’t wait for it!!

Best of luck today,we need some,

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 1:37 pm and is filed under horse racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.