22
OUT IN THE STICKS
RACING AHEADISSUE 178Jeremy Graysonhas been keeping a close eye on runners
away from the spotlight in the hunt for future winners
Do follow
Skelton
hurdler
WORCESTER, 8 July (Good,
good to firm in places)
2m (+57yds) 0-120 Handicap Hurdle
(class 4)
The market didn’t speak highly of DO
YOU KNOW WHAT’s chances ahead of
this handicap debut (drifted to 20-1),
and the immediate temptation is to
suggest she ran accordingly in posting
a near-16l fifth.
In truth, however, the switch to hold-
up tactics on this drop down to 2m for
the first time in her career backfired
majorly, rendering the assignment a
thoroughly inadequate stamina test
for one who’d landed a mares’ maiden
point in Ireland (3m, yielding) under
prominent handling just fourteen
months ago.
A fading effort over 2m4f on her
British debut before that may have
tricked connections, but in retrospect
that might have owed more to the lack
of a recent run, and it’s unlikely Dan
Skelton will make the same mistake
again with this Dubai Destination niece
of Charlie Hall Chase scorer Weird Al.
Sights can afford to be lowered
whilst her mark remains in the very low
100s, and any slight easing in underfoot
conditions would not present an issue.
UTTOXETER, 9 July (Good)
2m4f (+25yds) 0-100 Novices’ Handi-
cap Chase (class 5)
Gaps before DOUBLE COURT’s five
most recent outings of 164, 56, 65, 38
and (this time) 245 days speak of one
who appears to have become a bit
harder to train than when campaigned
intensively during the 2016 summer
season.
The heart is still very willing, howev-
er, and purely from a form
perspective a 2l second on this belat-
ed chasing debut, with the remainder
beaten 20l and more, must be close
to a personal best.
From a family that Nigel Twiston-
Davies knows well, having trained two
of the gelding’s siblings (including the
Paddy Power Gold Cup and Grand
Sefton scorer Little Josh), the Court
Cave gelding has already proven his
effectiveness trip-wise between 2m2f
and 2m7f, giving the Naunton handler
a broad canvass of options where
dropping on the right race next time
to go one better is concerned.
A return to a softer surface
wouldn’t inconvenience, for all that
both previous career successes have
been gained on officially good
ground.1m7f214yds (+17yds) 0-120 Handicap
Chase (class 4)
A propensity to shift out to the right
at his obstacles is by no means unusu-
al for VANCOUVER (even when
winning at this and another left-
handed course in the past), but rarelyif ever has it been so pronounced and
repeated as on this second-ever chas-
ing outing, condemning him to a
near-2l second place rather than the
victory that every other aspect of this
performance would have merited.
Notably, the hood of his previous
seven outings was missing, and if the
feeling is that its powers had waned,
perhaps a different headgear type
should be considered next time rather
than none at all.
Either way, Neil Mulholland’s Gener-
ous gelding has clearly started life in
handicap chases on the sort of mark
from which he can prove highly com-
petitive, and although most recently
successful at trips of up to half a mile
further, a 2m track as galloping as
Uttoxeter still constitutes sufficient a
test, and one such as Mulholland’s
happy hunting ground of Worcester
all the more so.2m7f70yds (+44yds) Maiden Hurdle
(class 5)
The optimum trip for CONNECTIVE is
closer to being arrived at, with a 6l
third here stepped up from 2m repre-
senting both the Dubawi gelding’s
best effort over hurdles to date but
also a bridge too far stamina-wise,
judged on his fading from a very chal-
lenging position three out.
It was probably never supposed to
be about jumping twigs in summer