Rizz already touched on it last night, but I again would like to apologize for the technical errors on the site these past few days. Everything appears to be back up and running, which is good as we edge closer to the exciting Christmas period of racing.
Neither of Rizzel's selections yesterday were winning ones, with Lady Pretender running the best of the two to finish in third place after drifting out to a whopping price of 25/1! Unfortunately, at the time of writing, his selection was nowhere near that price to advise as an each-way selection, which is ultimately one of the downfalls of posting the night before. Sometimes, you find the value early, and sometimes, you don't—it's part and parcel of this dreaded game!
Cairnzy's Tips
Buckna 9/4 – Newbury 1.50
I have this race between two horses, one being my own of course and the other being Nativehill from the Nicky Henderson yard.
The Henderson debutante could bolt up in this contest, and quite frankly, It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest given the luck we've had when either backing the stable or backing against it this past month or so. With that said, 13/8 seems a tad short for a horse making its hurdling debut on the back of a long layoff from the track. Nativehill hasn't been seen since winning a p2p back during the summer period of last year, and I'm just not convinced I'd want to get involved with that many question marks surrounding the horse.
With the above taken into account, that left me with the Warren Greatrex runner Buckna, who was an expensive purchase for the yard after winning an Irish p2p in March ( Bought for £350,000 ). I thought there was a lot to like about Buckna on hurdling debut last month, jumped well for most of the contest but looked like a horse who would appreciate further after looking outpaced in the business end.
Bucka gets a step up in trip in this contest. stepping up from 2m to 2m4f which I think will see him in better light, and if you consider his Irish p2p win came over 3m, you'd assume this will be more up his street. The form of his recent hurdling outing reads not too bad with the third-placed horse Walk On High finishing second yesterday to Jeremy Scott's Phoenix Risen. With a recent run under the belt and race fitness on his side, Buckna could very well step forward for this step up in trip
