11.30am Nicholls sets sights on National with Unioniste
Paul Nicholls and owner John Hales won the 2012 Grand National with Neptune Collonges and are hoping Unioniste can follow suit after his comfortable win at Sandown on Saturday.
“John was really excited afterwards as he has had the National in mind for this horse for some time. We’ll have to see how the handicapper reacts but given a reasonable mark, I can’t see why he shouldn’t go to Aintree with a decent chance,” he told http://www.paulnichollsracing.com.
“I notice some people are using statistics from the past to suggest he is too young for the race at seven, but I don’t pay any attention to that. Times have changed. Unioniste was running round Auteuil at the age of three and has already set one notable record in becoming the first four-year-old to win the December Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
“Like one or two other precocious young achievers I’ve trained, he had a lean spell before finding his form again. He’s grown up now, is very mature for a seven-year-old, shows great enthusiasm and we’ve always thought he might develop into a National horse.”
Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
So, we’ve put on a few extra pounds over the holidays, have we? Looking to boil ourselves back down to normal size before the shirt buttons give way? Happily, I can share some weight-control tips I picked up from a jockey yesterday.
Gary Bartley, who features in my story in today’s paper, is a 31-year-old Flat jockey who won the Victoria Cup on Hawkeyethenoo in 2011. Weight has been an issue for him for several years now and forced him out of the game for the thick end of a year. His worst moment came when, tempted back into action as a jump jockey at the end of 2013, he found himself unable to do 10st without putting up overweight.
But last year he was one of 20 jockeys assigned a new diet by researchers at John Moores University and the result is that he’s back riding on the Flat again and doing well. He plans to ride at 8st 5lb by the time the turf season starts up again in spring and shared with me some of the details of the new regime (protein-based, avoiding carbohydrates) that has done so much to help him.
“You have to go for a run first thing in the morning. You’re told, you have to treat your body like a coal fire, so the first thing to do is light the fire, so you go for a run to get your heart rate up to its maximum.
“Then you have your breakfast. They tell you, you can’t stop putting fuel on the fire but there’s no point putting fuel on a fire if you haven’t got it lit first.”
Bartley, accustomed to depriving himself of food for long periods, was advised it would be better to snack healthily at regular intervals, on fruits or nuts, while drinking plenty of water and green tea.
“Then make sure you have a dinner at night, plenty of fresh veg, chicken, a bit of beefsteak or fish. And stop eating at 6pm.”
One of those involved with the John Moores project told me it was common to find that the jockeys involved had metabolic rates way below the average, the result of years of self-starving that had become counter-productive because any food taken on would be laid down by the body as fat. The jockeys involved were stunned to find they could maintain their weight while eating more of the right food, because their metabolism improved so much.
Bartley told me that his whole life has improved, starting with his general mood. He feels more professional because he spends so much less time fretting about his weight, time which he can now use to research his mounts and the rivals they’re due to race against.
“Instead of sweating in the car and then going straight into the sana, never even looking at the paper, you’ve got your game face on. I’m not sweating, I’m not dehydrated with a headache that prevents me from reading.”
Bartley reckons he is riding better than ever and has regained the support of trainers like Jim Goldie. He spoke very frankly and I hope to see him enjoying renewed success on the track this year.
It’s heavy going today at Lingfield and one of the horses I can imagine coping well is Gores Island (2.40), who slogged through the mud at Sandown last season to land a handicap hurdle. He’s over fences this time, a sphere in which he is 0/9, though most of those defeats came before he joined Gary Moore, for whom he showed a fair bit of promise in three chases last spring.
Indeed, he was two lengths up at Exeter’s second-last when falling in April the last time he tackled fences. Off a 5lb higher mark, I think he can put it all together today. He should be sharper than for his only run in the past half-year, when a tired third over hurdles at Sandown. He’s 7-2.
At 13-2, Cherry Princess (3.20) is the interesting one at Wolverhampton. From the Stuart Williams yard that is four from six in the past fortnight, this mare is only marginally above the marks from which she has twice won on turf.
She has yet to get placed in four all-weather starts but copes perfectly well with Polytrack and was beaten only a length at Kempton when last seen in November. She was outpaced at a crucial stage that day but gets another 300 yards to play with this time.
OLBG Tipping competition - a new week
Happy New Year to all returning competition regulars. Hopefully you are recharged by the break and ready to pick winners from Perth to Newton Abbot.
Our final winner of 2014 was diegoisgod, who finished our last competition of the year on +26.50 by picking two winners out of three on Friday 19 December, having already had a handy lead that morning. Congratulations also to DrKelso, who won our Christmas quiz, which you can still see here if you feel like testing yourself.
This week’s prize is a pair of Premier tickets to Ascot for Saturday 17 January, kindly offered by OLBG who sponsor the mares hurdle on that day. The feature race is the Clarence House Chase, in which Sprinter Sacre is expected to make his comeback.
In fact, OLBG are offering FIVE (5!) pairs of tickets, so the top five finishers in our competition will all get a pair each. This, of course, means the return of the leaderboard, for one week only. You lucky people! Do let us know if you can’t use the prize.
To kick things off, we’d like your selections, please, for these races: 2.00 Musselburgh, 2.40 Lingfield, 3.10 Lingfield.
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!
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And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
