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BEN PAULING is on a hot streak and in the last five days his six runners have recorded form figures of 2-2-1-1-3-3. He unleashes his stable star and Cheltenham Festival winner Willoughby Court over fences at Huntingdon today.
Last season's Neptune Management Novices' Hurdle winner will be sent off at cramped odds but Pauling has two other likely lads trading at more rewarding prices.
KILDISART (12.55) has been despatched north to Carlisle for his hurdling debut. The gelding was made an odds-on favourite to win a Bangor bumper but lost out to Alan King's Kayf Mariner, a subsequent fifth to Daphne Du Clos and Western Ryder in a strong bumper on Newbury's Betfair Hurdle card in February.
Stablemate EQUUS SECRETUS (1.45) stays closer to home for his hurdling debut at Huntingdon. The winner of his sole point-to-point, Equus Secretus was well entered up this week and presumably comes here for some decent ground.
My selection receives 6lb from Kim Bailey's El Presente, a course and distance maiden hurdle winner last month. Interestingly, the horse he beat that day, Carlos Du Fruitier, a Wetherby winner on Friday, is also trained by Pauling. That gives Pauling a good marker and, perhaps significantly, he is not ducking the issue by running Equus Secretus elsewhere.
The other horse to catch my eye is Keith Dalgleish's ‘junior' bumper recruit QASR (4.10) at Carlisle.
Dalgleish is another trainer who has his string in great nick and Qasr, a son of Excelebration, has plenty of speed in his pedigree.
The three-year-old colt starts off over today's shorter trip of 1m 6f and could be capable of upsetting James Bethell's recent Huntingdon winner Cuckoo's Cally. The runner-up from that race has won since so Qasr will need to be fairly useful. The fact that he hasn't been gelded suggests that he has been showing up well at home.
Recommended Bets
- Carlisle – Kildisart (12.55)
- (11-4, McBookie)
- Huntingdon – Equus Secretus (1.45)
- (7-2, Paddy Power)
- Carlisle – Qasr (4.10)
- (11-4, McBookie)
