My sole selection on Thursday ran out an easy winner under jockey William Buick, who held Olympus Point together down the straight before forging clear of the field within the final furlong.
Both of Rizzel's horses were non-runners on Thursday, which is always a pain. The first was withdrawn in the morning, whereas the other didn't get the chance to run as Pontefract had to abandon their meeting due to Duran Fentiman breaking his leg in of the earlier races. Hopefully, it's a speedy recovery for Duran who has had more success this year than a lot of the recent years, with him getting more opportunities on winning chances for the Tim Easterby stable.
Cairnzy's Tips
Ice Max 7/2 – Newmarket 3.35
For my sole selection on Friday I've gone for a selection in the Joel Stakes, which at first glance looks a pretty competitive renewal. Due to the continuing rainfall fall at Newmarket, the ground has now become soft, so finding a horse who handles the conditions was my first port of call.
The Karl Burke-trained Ice Max ticked the most boxes for me when it came to studying this particular race. The horse has progressed nicely this season, earning a respectable OR of 111. Ice Max has proven his ability to handle testing ground during his career, with wins already this season at Bath (heavy), Musselburgh (good to soft), and most recently in a Group 2 race at Goodwood on soft going. Notably, Ice Max didn't just win these races – he dominated them, winning by comfortable margins of 4 lengths at Bath and 5.5 lengths at Musselburgh.
Despite a poor turnout, his most recent victory in the Group 2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood was quite impressive in my opinion. He managed to beat several highly-rated horses that day, including Poker Face, who reopposes in this race on slightly better terms. Although reopposing on better terms in this contest, I don't believe it will be enough for Poker Face to reverse the form with my selection.
Lead Artist, the current favorite, is an interesting runner, but disappointed me in his last outing, where he was soundly beaten by Kinross in a Group 2 race at Doncaster two weeks ago. Given that Lead Artist is yet to win on anything worse than good ground, and only finished third on good-to-soft on his seasonal reappearance, I have serious concerns about how he will handle the current ground conditions.
Rizzel's Tips
Hurtle Wallop 9/2 – Haydock 4.35
It could be foolish to ignore Billy Not Mates going for the back-to-back wins in this race, even though his claims are clear as day, but I thought that the Jim Boyle runner, Hurtle Wallop was of interest at bigger prices.
Jim Boyle sends two runners up to Haydock, and it's not really a track he has too many runners at but when he does come to Haydock they tend to do very well. He is 2/3 at the track in the last five years, and though it is dodgy going for one of his horses as sod's law is that the other untipped horse will win, this looks like the horse they have come up for as the other horse is in a deeper race and has more to prove.
Hurtle Wallop has a pedigree that screams soft ground, which is what he'll get today at Haydock. He ran well last time out on soft ground at Goodwood when not being positioned in the best of places, so he arrives in good form and I think his most recent run can be marked up. This race does look quite competitive on paper but I think you can potentially look past a fair few of the runners. The main threat according to the betting would be the rare flat runner from the Harry Derham stable. He has form on the flat when trained in Ireland but I think this race is a pipe opener for his jumps season and they've decided to travel to Haydock as the ground is soft and that's ideal for the winter horses as it's deemed as safe ground, so I am more than happy to take him on as if they believed he was on a good enough mark, they would've run him a lot earlier in the flat season, not in September.
Billy No Mates enjoys running on soft ground and might be primed for this race as he is running off a 3lb lower mark than what he was on when winning this 12 months ago, but he is an 8-year-old and I think he is susceptible to an improver and I've nailed my opinion on Hurtle Wallop being that horse. The cheekpieces come on for the hood which was on last time out, and I think this more conventional track combined with the testing ground could be the recipe to get him winning his first race.
Encourageable 18/1 – Haydock 5.40
It hasn't been a happy hunting ground for me in recent times when I've gone for the outside of the field, but chances are that more often than not it isn't going to work out, but I am going in again on the biggest priced runner in the field, Encourageable in this contest.
This is a tough little race and you have horses on dangerous marks who could quite easily win on testing ground that should suit them today, so it's not a total surprise to see my selection being the price he is. However, he also falls into that category of being on a very tempting handicap mark, and that's what has sucked me into backing him.
James Horton has had a tough time of things over the last 12 months with him having to start fresh after John Dance had to get rid of all of his horses, and that was who James solely trained for. Encourageable was an old John Dance horse and has clearly had plenty of problems over the last couple of years, but he was once a very good horse when he was a 3-year-old. His last win came at Thirsk on soft ground over a mile off a mark of 89, which produced an RPR of 100. His best performances have come on soft ground, but since that win and a decent effort the time after at today's venue, he has had plenty of breaks and not much running. He has come down the ratings from being 94 rated to now being an 82 rated horse. He hasn't been seen for over a year, so his fitness is going to be a big question, but he has had a wind-op and the booking of Haydock master jockey, Richard Kingscote was enough for me to believe that they are confident of a big run.
Richard doesn't ride at Haydock that much anymore as he is based down South, but when he was the stable jockey for Tom Dascombe when he was the trainer at Manor Houses (Michael Owen's stables), Richard was a frequent rider at Haydock and nobody rode this circuit better than him, especially over the longer trips when they had to race around the bends. It's interesting that James Horton has managed to get Richard on board, so I'm hoping for a good run.
Chances are that this horse will either run a blinder or will be virtually pulled up, so I'm going to have a bet on the nose. Obviously, he is an EW price and you can go for that route if you want.
In December 2020 we sadly 
