Friday, August 21, 2009

Lord Mildmay Memorial Chase

I was on business in north Wales earlier today and called in to the Pant yr Ochain for a spot of lunch, only to bump into a number of very smartly dressed young people on their way to Chester races; favourites won three of the six races on the card so I guess there's a fair chance a few of them will have gone home smiling.

Chester race again tomorrow but I'm concentrating on the Lord Mildmay Memorial Handicap Chase at Newton Abbot run over a trip of two miles five and a half furlongs. Paul Nicholls fields four of the sixteen declared, while Peter Bowen runs three and Jonjo O'Neill two. The booking of Ruby Walsh for course and distance winner Roby De Cimbre indicates that one is the main hope for the Nicholls' stable - the Sporting Life tissue has the horse priced at 7/1 this evening.

If you're going to play in this race you have to look at the form of the Summer Plate run at Market Rasen five weeks ago. On that occasion Nostringsattached pipped stablemate Keepitsecret a short head on the line with Peter Bowen's No Panic a neck behind in third. The second and third re-oppose and are closely matched again; Keepitsecret looked unfortunate at Market Rasen - the slightly shorter trip here should help. Of the principals, I prefer Keepitsecret but the one that has caught my eye at a bigger price is Peter Bowen's Always Waining. Carrying top weight, this one finished fifth at Market Rasen just two and a half lengths behind the winner. That's his best effort for a long time - priced up at 12/1 in the tissue he's worth an each-way interest, although I will point out that stable form is worrying with no winners in the past five weeks.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

Something of a turn-up here with David Pipe's Star Of Germany (14/1) taking the spoils, having won a two mile chase at Stratford on Thursday; Paul Nicholls' Hoo La Baloo (16/1) finished second with Backstage (14/1) third.
A decent enough effort from Always Waining (9/1) who was with the pace for much of the race and went on to lead after three out but he was short of room two from home and then stayed on at the same pace, crossing the line in fifth. The market leaders all disappointed - No Panic (4/1f) and Roby de Cimbre (5/1) were both pulled up while Keepitsecret (9/2) was the last to complete in twelfth.