11.45am Weld sticks with Russell after Windermere sacking
Tony Paley: Dermot Weld will pledge his allegiances to Davy Russell if the jockey and Windsor Park are able to appear at the Punchestown Festival next month.
Windsor Park won the Neptune Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and might run at Punchestown or be preserved for a run on the Flat ahead of a possible assault at the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
Russell suffered a broken arm at Gowran on Saturday and while hopes are high he will return to action in time for Punchestown, it has been a difficult weekend for the jockey after he lost the ride on last season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Lord Windermere, reportedly at the request of trainer Jim Culloty.
Windsor Park is, like Lord Windermere, owned by Dr Ronan Lambe, but his trainer is adamant Russell will continue his association with the horse over jumps.
Weld told the Irish Times: “No decision has been taken on where the horse will appear next. There are two possibilities - he could run in one of the two Grade One novice events at Punchestown, in which case Davy Russell will ride if he is available, or there’s every possibility he could run in a conditions race on the Flat. A decision will be taken closer to the time.
“I was glad to see Davy Russell’s horrendous fall at Gowran isn’t as bad as first feared and, thank God, his leg isn’t broken. There seems to be every possibility he will make Punchestown. Should that be the case, and should Windsor Park run at Punchestown, then Davy Russell will most definitely be riding him.”
Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
While racing’s powerful people have a look down the back of the sofa for some cash they can offer to next year’s champion jump jockey, it seems the one thing on which everyone agrees is that there’s no need to fiddle around with the jump jockeys’ title race. This will doubtless be greeted as good news by most followers of the sport, given how unpopular last week’s changes to the Flat jockeys’ championship appear to be.
But a discussion on Twitter last night threw up this thought: would it be such a bad thing to limit the jump jockeys’ championship to what we already recognise as being the core jumping season, say 1 October to finale day at Sandown at the end of April? Clearly, that would mean no repeat of the iron-man heroics we’ve seen from Tony McCoy, riding over 100 winners through the summer in the hope of getting to 300 by season’s end. Several of his records would become set in stone forever if we changed the title race in the manner I’ve just mentioned.
But the benefit would be that it would remove significant pressure from jockeys to ride through the summer, at a time when the risk of injury is often greater than in the winter because of a drier racing surface. Of course they would still take rides, but they could afford to be a lot more choosy if there were no implications for the title race.
That in turn might free up some opportunities for lower-profile riders trying to get themselves noticed. The trend in recent years has been for the top jockeys to take an ever-greater share of the total number of available mounts and, while you have to admire the durability and resilience of people like McCoy and Richard Johnson, the effect is that there are fewer opportunities for others. Strip summer jump racing out of the title race and perhaps you can spread the wealth a little wider.
Yes, there would be an element of the artificial to a contest which did not run for an entire calendar year but let’s not be too precious about that. In sport, we cope with the artificial all the time. To see the truth of this, you only have to look at a racecourse, with its plastic rails all over the place, being moved in and out for each raceday, with its fences of varying stiffness, its winning post stuck in the ground on a spot that was once chosen arbitrarily, and it’s various starting points, which, as we discovered in the autumn, may not actually be as far from the winning post as we had always believed.
I’m sure there are no such problems at Taunton, a lovely little track where I hope to see Makadamia (3.20) win a novice handicap chase for the Waley-Cohens today. A daughter of Makounji, who was once third to Direct Route in the Melling Chase, she evidently needed her first run over fences in December but took a big step forward when scoring at Wetherby last month, beating Iconic Rose, who has won over hurdles since and is worth a second look in Towcester’s 3pm race today.
Makadamia is a lenient 7lb higher, will appreciate the good going and now has cheekpieces to help her concentrate. It’s not a hot race and 2-1 looks very fair.
Later, Vodka N Tonic (4.20) should build on his handicap debut last time, his first run for three months, when the ground may have been too soft. Nicky Henderson’s runner is 9-4.
Pick of the Towcester card may be Wicklewood (3.30) at 11-1. Three times a course winner in 2014, he has been running on unsuitably testing ground or over too far for his recent beaten efforts. Obviously the fall last time is more of a concern and there have been a few jumping mishaps in his career. It looks as though connections can’t decide whether he needs a hood or not and that is also a concern. Even so, the odds understate his chance.
Tipping competition - a new week
Congratulations to JahLion, who held on to win last week’s competition on an impressive final score of +34.75, picking Gassin Golf (4-1) on Friday.
This week’s prize is a copy of Timeform’s Horses To Follow for the coming Flat season. Retailing at £9.95, it offers 50 horses to follow, chosen by Timeform’s team of experts, plus Irish horses to follow, ante-post tips and plenty more in the way of winner-finding features. If you don’t win, you can buy it here.
To kick things off, we’d like your selections, please, for these races: 4.00 Towcester, 4.20 Taunton, 4.30 Towcester.
As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers.
In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.
For terms and conditions click here.
Good luck!
Click here for all the day’s racecards, form, stats and results.
And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
