The poor form from the Paul Nicholls yard continues and unfortunately for Rizz, he was on the receiving end of it yesterday with two of his selections coming from that particular yard.
Connections involved with Paul Nicholls must be scratching their heads at the current form coming from the yard, and whats more concerning is their top guns look well off the boil. The expensive purchase of Caldwell Potter has been a turned-over favourite the last twice and doesn't appear to be showing the same form from when trained by Gordon Elliot in Ireland.
It is surely only a matter of time before the yard hit form but In the meantime, I'd be avoiding their runners until I see a change of results.
Cairnzy's Tips
Spirits Bay 7/2 – Haydock 12.45
Father duties have resulted in me posting quite late, so I apologize in advance.
My sole selection on Saturday comes in one of the earlier races of the day at Haydock and my eye was drawn to Spirits Bay who I think holds strong claims in upsetting the short priced favourite in Oh My Johnny.
Don't get me wrong, I can understand the rant and rave revolving around Oh My Johnny and on paper he probably deserves to be your market leader for this contest. Oh My Johnny is a lightly raced five-year-old who hails from the inform Hobbs & White yard who are currently operating a 45% SR in the last 14 days with five winners from eleven runners. Making his handicap debut of a mark of 116 is surely underestimating his ability. With that said, he is up against some experienced horses in this contest and I don't think he warrants a price as short as 6/5. He could make a mockery and hose up but I'll take the risk.
I thought my selection Spirits Bay was potentially a good bet against the favourite mentioned above and running of a mark of 126 makes him potentially well treated given he is still a lightly raced horse at the age of seven ( only had 9 career runs ). The forecast ground for Haydock as expected is running heavy which I feel will play into the strengths of Spirits Bay whos last two wins came of soft and heavy ground. There was plenty of positives to take from my selections last outing, which came when finishing fifth of fourteen at Cheltenham last month. My selection finished just over 7L behind the eventual winner Mirabad who was as impressive as you like but he did finish a lot closer to some decent types in Bo Zenith and Wreckless Eric. Open to further improvement, I think Spirits Bay has every chance in this race and at more attractive odds, I'll roll the dice in the hope he can put his best foot forward and upset the market principle.
