On a day of mediocre racing, not even livened up by another Great Leighs card, Cove Mountain (4.10) is easily the best bet at Hereford. She was a 100-1 shot when running fourth in a non-handicap hurdle behind much higher-rated rivals at Towcester last week. It would be easy to dimiss that as a fluke, but the form is backed up by a solid time for the race and class, and Cove Mountain is trained by Mark Rimell, whose stable is at last getting back to form. She gets in this ordinary handicap off a lenient mark and it is a bonus that the useful 5lb claimer Aidan Coleman takes the ride again.
The Luca Cumani stable is moving into gear and he can provide Jamie Spencer with a short-priced double at Great Leighs, with Boz (5.50) and Sky Dive (6.20). The former will be suited by the return to 1m6f, while Sky Dive simply failed to handle soft ground when turned over at Nottingham.
Spencer should also be on target for Michael Bell at Folkestone, where Topazes (4.20) looks to have plenty in hand despite a 6lb penalty for his resounding Southwell win.
Tony Paley 1.45pm The Fallon Factor -- Kieren finally got round to talking about his fellow riders in his interview with Matt Chapman which Attheraces have been running every lunchtime this week.
What did we learn? Fallon thinks Jimmy Fortune is the toughest jockey to beat in a finish; he would rather be on a Jamie Spencer horse than a Richard Hughes-ridden one if the pair were fighting it out in the final furlong and Chris Catlin is "by far the most improved rider in England". He says he believes Catlin "will get a good job somewhere this summer."
No doubt many of you will have read the news that jockey Dean McKeown and trainer Paul Blockley are the latest pair to face corruption charges following investigation by the British Horseracing Authority. They are charged with breaching rule 201, concerning communicating directly or indirectly to one or more Betfair account holders information relating to the prospects of their horse in the race, including information that was not in the public domain. Chris Cook os working on that story for us and came across this little gem in an interview with McKeown. When asked what he thought of the Betfair forum he said: "It surprises me that so many psychiatric hospitals make computer terminals available to their patients." It could be that forumites will have the last laugh.
2.25pm Mick Quinlan has his first two-year-old winner of the year as Langs Lash romps in. The same stable have Skruton in the first (2.30) at Redcar and any market move for that one will be worth noting.
3.05pm The 3.00 at Redcar will definitely not go in rider P J McDonald's scrap book. He should have won on hot favourite Stevie Thunder but after travelling very well on his mount he is outridden by Kerrin McEvoy on Spirit Of Nation. McDonald did not get stuck into his mount until it was too late and Stevie Thunder is one to be on next time to gain compensation.
3.15pm Jason Weaver speaks to the assistant trainer about the chances of Little Knickers in the 3.20 at Folkestone. Ground conditions, trip requirements and current wellbeing discussed in detail but not a word about how she got her name! And her dam was called Pants!!
4.25pm Ron's first two bets of the day have gone in with Cove Mountain successful at 5-1 at Hereford and Topazes winning at Folkestone at 4-5. Roll on Great Leighs later where, on a day of admittedly ordinary racing, the best quality runners are competing. Mark Rimell, the trainer of Cove Mountain, explains after the victory that the virus has held the progress of his stable up and his horses might be worth another look now he's back in form.
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