Readers of my recent festival preview will have noticed that
Alan King featured throughout, and I was delighted to hear Tom Segal picking
out Wayne Hutchinson as one of his favourite jockeys when I finally got around
to watching his Morning Line appearance on tape this fine Sunday dawn.
At Chepstow yesterday, Hutch provided King with a 5-1 winner
in the shape of Oh Crick, who was sporting blinkers for the first time at a
track where his trainer had drawn a blank in 45 previous attempts over the past
843 days. I didn't know all this when I placed a 1pt stake on the horse, and
this was King's only runner at the Monmouthshire course yesterday, but it gives
me a thrill to discover such facts in retrospect.
Elsewhere, Grumeti showed again that when he doesn’t end up
on his nose, he wins. With a rating of
154 and on the up, Grumeti, under Choc Thornton, went off clear favourite and
duly dispatched challengers in the Grade 2 Novices’ Hurdle over 2m. Paul Nicholls’s Dodging Bullets provided the
only real opposition inside the home straight but Grumeti was cruising and
proved the 1.51 Betfair SP correct.
King currently boasts a 51% RTF figure, meaning that across the
past fortnight, just over half of his runners have Run to Form (within 5lb of
their RP rating) and the newspaper felt fit to highlight his success in
Saturday races worth £10k or more with this eye-catching headline:
All in all, I'm delighted with my position on Medermit for
the Ryanair, excited about the prospects of West End Rocker (and to a lesser
extent Hold on Julio, who I have not backed ante post) and hope King, and Wayne
Hutchinson's good fortune continues as the festival draws inexorably closer.
DP
Minsk Mix Up
Oh.. before I forget.. isn't this funny - Minsk has been being talked up as one to watch since switching from long, flat races to jumps, and I had a point on him for the JCB Triumph Hurdle. Baby Mix disappointed last time out but I thought 23 looked big about the grey gelding, so I backed him ante post yesterday too. Minsk failed to deliver at Kempton and is now double the odds I got him at, whilst Mix (one-third of a Saturday afternoon Paddy Brennan threesome) has been cut to 7-1. The favourite is now the aforementioned Alan King trained Grumeti (6-1), who I have not had anything on!
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