Tuesday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Sacrifices are sometimes necessary in the buildup to a really important moment in your professional life and so it is that Walk In The Mill has been put on a strict diet of hurdle races for the next two months, part of his preparation for the Grand National in early April. The eight-year-old put his name in lights by winning Saturday’s Becher Chase and looks a serious contender for the real thing, if he can be delivered there in one piece by his trainer, Robert Walford.
This is not to be taken for granted because Walk In The Mill has a weakness for bruises to his feet which can sometimes prevent him from running when he is otherwise healthy, as happened on Grand National day this year, after he had snuck into the race as a reserve. “We had about three sets of shoes on him the day before and we just could not keep him sound,” Walford recalls.
Such problems are compounded by the fact that Walk In The Mill is not the ideal patient. “You can’t quite shoe him how you’d want to shoe him,” the trainer continues, “because he’s quite exuberant and he tends to pull shoes off, so he’s a very tricky horse to shoe. He’s a real daft bugger, a real character.”
Walford got the horse cheaply from France but might not have committed to the deal had he known more about that character. Under the instructions of the owner, Dido Harding, he was seeking a quiet, biddable animal that she could ride after his racing days were over.
“We liked him and he was not a lot of money,” Walford recalls. “So I said to Richard Hobson, who was buying for us, the deal-breaker is, is he a good ride, is he well behaved? And Richard said, well, he must be. I saw the guy who trains him yesterday and he was leading him on a bike.
“So we get him home and he wasn’t a good ride at all, he was bloody awful, an absolute nutter. Three months later, I was at the sales in France and I saw Ferdy Murphy. He said: ‘You bought Walk In The Mill, what’s he like?’ I said, he’s a bloody lunatic. He said: ‘Oh yeah, they couldn’t train him, they couldn’t even get him to the gallops, they had to lead him there on a bike …’”
Evidently, Walford has been able to reach an accommodation with Walk In The Mill, who has won four of his last 10 races. Now all but assured of a place in the National field, he will be kept to hurdle races until the weights are set in early February, in the hope that his official rating will not move up or down. Good luck to all involved with this talented, tricky animal.
Another animal who might be so described lines up for the last at Fontwell, where Dan Gun (3.40) is a 100-30 shot. He couldn’t win in Ireland but showed promise on his debut for Fergal O’Brien, staying on to be fifth despite his jockey failing, in the eyes of the stewards, to be sufficiently positive on him. The four-year-old gets to run off the same mark here and should be helped by this more testing surface.
Snazz Man (12.40) looks the right favourite for the opener at odds of 11-4, having scored over the course and distance when last seen in May. Lucy Gardner wasn’t helped by a slipping saddle that day and the horse must have had quite a bit in hand to win by daylight in those circumstances. A 10lb rise may not stop him.
I was hoping for better than 11-4 about Weld Al Emarat, the nap at Southwell. The same odds are more enticing about Fox Kasper (12.20) who showed up well on his debut at Kempton and comes from a yard with a 25% strike-rate on Fibresand.
Tips for Tuesday
Southwell
11.50 Go Annie Go 12.20 Fox Kasper 12.50 Epeius 1.20 Princess Harley 1.50 Excel Mate 2.20 Weld Al Emarat (nap) 2.50 Helen Sherbet 3.20 Zodiakos
Uttoxeter
12.30 Stop Talking 1.00 Alliteration 1.30 Chef Des Obeaux 2.00 Esprit Du Large 2.30 Flynnvincible 3.00 Global Domination 3.30 Manofthemountain
Fontwell
12.40 Snazz Man 1.10 The Ogle Gogle Man 1.40 Tazka 2.10 Bramble Brook 2.40 Outofthisworld 3.10 Bredon Hill Lad 3.40 Dan Gun (nb)
