Heathcliff was a nice winner under Billy Loughnane for James Fanshawe. It was very surprising to see him drift in the market at the rate he did, with him winning at odds of 9/4. If you took the odds the night before you wouldn't have received the drift.
Yellow Star, the other selection of the day, at Plumpton, ran a creditable race but couldn't go with his stablemate and the Paul Nicholls runner who challenged each other all the way to line, being 21L ahead of Yellow Star who was in turn 13L ahead of the fourth. My selection might not have stayed the trip as when headed he went out very quickly.
Rizzel's Tips
Yes Day 4/1 – Warwick 3.00
I've debated about sticking Yes Day up for quite a while, but I'm going to stick to my gut as I've been punished too many times when not doing this.
Yes Day makes his chase debut on the back of a 222-day break, so he has to answer a couple of questions on his jumping over the larger obstacles on a tricky jumping track, but also has to prove his fitness his good enough to win first time out this season.
Today's opposition doesn't appear to be the best quality. They are not the worst by any means, but I have reservations over the ground for some and the handicap marks for the others. So when looking through the field, I thought the risk of backing a chase debutante was the right thing to do as he is unexposed in this sphere, and the others in the race are hardly pulling up any stumps at present, apart from I'm Ravenous who made a winning start to fences last time out, but the form doesn't look too strong.
Yes Day made an encouraging start to live over rules last season for the O'Neill's, with one win and some good efforts in novice races, including a middle-of-the-pack finish at Cheltenham in a Grade 2 last December. The good ground does pose a question, but based on how he ran on yielding ground on his PTP win and how he's dealt with good to soft ground since running over rules, I think the ground should be fine for him, and definitely better for him than others in the race.
Al Shabab 4/1 – Newcastle 6.30
I can see why people would want to follow Tickets in for this race as he is a C&D winner and was heavily supported when running in a slightly higher grade last time out, but my eye was drawn to Al Shabab who was a tad unlucky not to win at Wolverhampton last time out.
Ian Williams' horse was equally as well backed as Tickets was. Prior to his run at Wolverhampton, he had shown very little in his runs for Ian Williams but was punted into 100/30 after having no faith in the market on his six runs prior, which saw him go off at 25/1 or more on every start, reaching as high as 80/1, so it clearly shows they were expecting a big turn around last time out, and he did run to how the market said. However, he was held up towards the rear, which made life a little more difficult for him, and I think on a straight 7f, he deserves a shot, but I expect him to be short in the market once again.
Melbourne cup
Early o clock, about 4am 🦘
Absurde
9-1 ew 5 places
Sharp n smart
40-1 ew 5 places
6-4 top 10 finish (single)
Gday Bruce and good night 🇦🇺