It was a losing day at the office with neither of Rizzels' two selections winning on the day.
I missed the race in which Guy ran in, so I'm unable to comment on how that one performed. Rizzel's other selection ran a solid race in defeat to finish third but given the winner was an old winning selection for him, I think he was probably left with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Saturday's racing as expected looks tough but there is some cracking races on show for punters and fingers crossed we can get back to winning ways.
Cairnzy's Tips
Jeriko Du Reponet 11/2 – Newbury 2.25
For my first selection, I've decided to give Nicky Henderson's Jeriko Du Reponet another chance, with a return to hurdling being a massive plus for this horse. Normally when I look at form and see a horse has pulled up more than once in its last five outings I would avoid backing it, but I'm going against that this time round as I feel if Jeriko Du Reponet can bounce back to what we've witnessed previously with this horse over hurdles then he is the one to beat in my opinion.
Jeriko Du Reponet started off his racing career by winning a p2p and followed up by winning his next three outings, two of which came at this course. Those wins earned him a very respectable rating of 135 over hurdles with the pick of his form coming in the Grade 2 Supreme Trial at Doncaster last season, which saw Jeriko Du Reponet beat home the now 143 rated Lump Sum from the Sam Thomas stable by a comfortable length and a quarter that day. Jeriko Du Reponet didn't jump with much fluency in that contest, but given he was still able to win by a comfortable enough margin suggests to me that this horse definitely has more to offer. A return to hurdling at a course he does well at, along with having a recent run should hopeful see this lad in better light.
I've mentioned on a few occasions now that I'm not Nico De Boinville's biggest fan and I'm happy to see he is not on my selection this time around and is replaced by James Bowen who is a worthy operator on his day. Notably, Nico was on board my selection both times he was pulled up and as much as you can't always blame the jockey, I've a strong opinion that he rides half ars*d if he knows his mount has no chance of winning.
Sir Gino/Mystical Power/Colonel Mustard ( Combination Tricast ) – Newcastle 2.10
The Fight Fifth Hurdle is by far the race of the day, and despite there being no Constitution Hill in the lineup up we still have a great matchup between Sir Gino and Mystical Power to look forward to. Of course, the winner of this contest will have a massive say on the current Champion Hurdle market. I'm particularly interested to see where Constitution Hills stands once the new market is formed.
Despite the close form of the top two in the market, Sir Gino and Mystical Power, I've decided to take a riskier approach and place a combination tricast bet. This is not a bet I or Rizz typically recommend on this forum, but the odds on the favorites don't offer much value.
Assuming Sir Gino and Mystical fight it out, I then had to find my eachway angle, and my dart landed on Colonel Mustard who at 40/1 at time of writing looks over priced in my opinion. He's had a couple of recent races which set him up well for this contest and he didn't run bad in either of them, hitting the frame on both occasions. Colonel Mustard has a nack of running well on the big occasions which is proven with a recent third in a Class 1 Grade Two hurdle contest at Ascot, finishing just under two lengths behind the eventual winner Lucky Place. Colonel Mustard also finished fifth in last season's Champion Hurdle which was another creditable effort. The market would tell you his chances are slim of being involved but how many times do we see the market get it wrong? I'll have a small play on the combination tricast for the interest but I'll be watching this race more for the spectacle it promises to be.
