Racing tips: Mark Walford’s progressive Johnson’s Blue still has more to give

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The British and Irish runners for Sunday were fairly dreadful. One unseated early into his race, one never took to fences and the other looked in need of a longer trip and in need of the run. However, the French selection hosed up in great style.

Catterick 2:30

Backing horses on chase debuts are risky selections as we saw with Soaring Glory at Carlisle yesterday where he clearly didn't take to fences and jumped terribly. However, he wasn't a PTP horse so there was always going to be a chance that he wasn't, but I felt his class over hurdles might've translated. I'm going with another chase debutante today in the shape of HEREWEGOHONEY who was a PTP horse before transitioning to the rules game, so does have experience over fences in public, which resulted in a win from her sole attempt.

Fergal O'Brien's runner started to progress nicely towards the end of last season over hurdles, winning on her previous two runs, doing it in good style both times. She made her seasonal reappearance at Bangor which looked like she needed the run. She led and then got tired quite quickly which is usually a good indicator of lacking fitness. She was also carrying 12st which wasn't ideal, especially on seasonal return, but I felt like she did alright.

Now she goes over fences I think we will see a good amount of progression again, being bred for them you'd expect this mark of 116 to be well within reach. She is related to chase winners, which is always nice to see, as it enhances my confidence that she'll be fine over the fences.

Fergal is having a great time with things at the moment, currently working at a 30% SR in the last 14 days, including some winners over fences who won on chase debut, recently having one winning at Bangor on Saturday.

This race is decent for the grade, with Lilith being the standout horse after winning at the Punchestown Festival in the spring, but that was over a shorter trip, and I feel like she is vulnerable at this trip.

Catterick 3:00

Though the recent run of JOHNSON'S BLUE will probably tempt punters to stay away from him as they probably think his progression has finished I think that is definitely not the case, so hopefully, punters do stay away and give me a decent price for him.

He landed the four-timer during the summer, which saw him win 5/6 times in total. He then had a late summer break before returning at Aintree earlier this month running in a Class 2 where he finished 4th/7. I think that run was a combination of probably needing the run as it was his first run in 112 days, combined with the step-up in grade. Though he wasn't competitive towards the end of the race, the form has started to work out nicely. The winner finished second in the Coral Gold Cup on Saturday and the 5th finished third in the same race.

The form of his summer runs has worked out quite nicely as well. Well Educated has won three on the bounce since finishing behind Johnson's Blue, improving 15lbs in that time. From that same race, it has produced some winners who have found their feet in novice chase races.

The trainer believes the track and ground will be in his favour, and that he has been doing well since his Aintree run.

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