Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
I had a quick word yesterday with Noel Fehily about his experience aboard Special Tiara in Saturday’s Tingle Creek Chase. Fehily’s mount was, as most of you will know, runner-up to Sire De Grugy after the eventual winner impeded him at the final fence.
“I was fairly well bumped, as everybody saw,” Fehily told me. “We were picking up between the last two fences and I was going there to challenge again when we got broadsided.
“I thought at the time we would have won. I was knocked sideways and to be honest he did well to stand up.”
The stewards ruled that the placings should remain unaltered on the grounds that, while Special Tiara had lost “ground and momentum” in the collision, “the winner appeared to be holding him comfortably on the run to the line”. But, as Fehily noted, Special Tiara did well to stay on as gamely as he did after being bumped. “He could easily have been winded but he’s picked up again and stayed on,” the jockey said.
Asked about the inquiry, Fehily said: “It’s a difficult one, as there’s no one to blame. You can’t say it was anyone’s fault other than Sire De Grugy’s. Did it affect the result? In my view, it did.”
There has been some discussion about the fact that the interference took place in midair, while the horses were jumping, and some people seem to hold the view that that in some way mitigates what Sire De Grugy did, making it less serious than if he had barged Special Tiara while the pair were running on the flat between fences or on the run-in. But the official stewarding position, emailed to me by the BHA yesterday, is that interference is treated in the same way, whether in midair or on the ground.
Fehily certainly gained the impression on Saturday that the fact the collision occured in midair made a difference. When I asked him if he felt stewards treat midair interference differently, he replied: “Obviously they do. If that had happened on the flat, I’m in no doubt I’d have got the race. There’s no question about it. But the fact that it’s in midair means there’s a grey area.”
Special Tiara’s connections continue to consider whether they should appeal. In the circumstances, it might be useful if they did, because opinions on this subject appear to differ widely and we could all benefit from a bit more official guidance about how the rules apply to such incidents.
Today’s jump racing is at Leicester, where Space Walker (3.35) is fairly priced at 100-30 to build on his handicap debut last month. He couldn’t give weight to a rival from a red-hot yard on that occasion but pulled well clear of the third and generally turned in a very promising effort for a seasonal reappearance by a young and inexperienced animal.
His trainer, Ben Pauling, continues to impress and legs up Nico de Boinville for the first time on this horse. Space Walker coped well with testing conditions when racing on the Flat for Harry Dunlop.
At Kempton tonight, Sir Roger Moore (6.10) might be worth a look at odds of 8-1. Charles Hills’ juvenile was highly tried but disappointing through the summer, when he ran in the Coventry Stakes, at Glorious Goodwood and at York’s Ebor meeting. He was then gelded and ran respectably on his return at Lingfield last month.
He runs here on a mark 8lb below his initial rating and it might be too early to give up on him, with the step up in distance likely to suit. The excellent Graham Gibbons returns to the saddle for the first time since York.
At 6-1, Top Diktat (7.10) could continue the fine run of the Gary Moore yard. Twice a course winner, he returned to form at Nottingham last month after being given a break through the summer. He remains 7lb below his peak winning mark from last year.
Tipping competition, day three
Our winners so far:
Monday
Tempting 7-1
Itstimeforapint 11-4
Volunteer Point 7-2
Tuesday
April Dusk 2-1
Superciliary 25-1
Transient Bay 5-2
And our leader is. . .
Ormrod76 +8.75
... who has had half of this week’s winners so far. NoddyBankie (+6.50) comes next.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 2.35 Leicester, 3.05 Leicester, 7.10 Kempton.
This week, we’re offering a second chance to win a copy of the Racing Post Annual 2016, featuring 208 colour pages of the best writing and photography from racing’s daily paper. The blurb promises “ the moments to treasure and unusual stories of the year, plus a look forward at the top prospects for 2016”. If you don’t win, you can buy a copy here.
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. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today, but you will start on -6.
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.
Good luck!
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