The hunting/point-to-point fraternity have been up in arms recently at the appearance in 'their' hunter chases of good horses trained by professionals, which have usually been winning with ease. Today's hunter chase at Folkestone suffers no such defect - all trainers and jockeys concerned are unfamiliar to most punters and the result, of course, is a race you'd be mad to bet on. From the sport's perspective, this is hardly progress, which just goes to show how much attention should be paid to the hunting/point-to-point fraternity.
Sadly, the hunter chase is not alone among today's races in being short on quality. It's easy to tell that Cheltenham is round the corner and the punter who keeps his powder dry between now and the Festival is almost certainly doing a clever thing.
For the rest of you, the ex-French Lupanar (2.10) can continue Gary Moore's excellent run with victory in the opening maiden hurdle. A four-year-old, he ran on into second behind Paul Nicholls' experienced and well-regarded Pasco on his hurdles debut at Newbury this month and will be better for today's extra half-mile.
Trainer Jamie Osborne's runners are in rude health and with his last nine runners finishing 433126111, Lascelles (8.50) holds a fair chance of making the frame at Kempton this evening - a decent price at around 10/1 this morning. Lightly raced, with only five career outings, this colt ran an excellent second on his first spin after a four-month break at Wolverhampton over an extended mile in January, where he was only three lengths behind winner Cape Velvet.
He then disappointed on Southwell's Fibresand earlier this month when disliking the kickback of the deep sand surface there and deserves another chance tonight back on Polytrack. An extra two furlongs await him here than he faced at Wolverhampton, but his sire, Halling, was a winner over a mile-an-a-quarter.
10.40pm Hm, seem to have provoked a reaction there . . .
Hi Greenawayr and Tonytp, sorry for the late reply to your posts, I'm just back from today's press conference at Cheltenham.
I'm well aware of the role that hunting / pointing play as 'feeder' sports for steeplechasing, but, in common with the great majority of racing's followers, my interest is only in the professional sport. Therefore, hunter chases of the kind that took place today at Folkestone are of next to no interest to me - and I bet most punters would say the same.
I don't particularly begrudge such races their place in the calendar, but I reserve the right to poke fun at the lack of quality on show, whether we're talking about horses, jockeys or trainers. And I have no sympathy if the usual suspects that normally contest such races are brushed aside by professional participants. As racing's rulers have recently discovered, the best way forward for our sport is to emphasise the quality - banning professionals from hunter chases would therefore seem a backward step.
Lupanar won today, albeit at a short price, while Lascelles was a little unlucky and will be worth a look next time.
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