Sunday 8th January 2017

A nice winner for the blog yesterday, Lifeboat Mona won as the formbook suggested she should do so. I didn’t understand the price drift, 9-4 /11-4 and money for the other horses as they all had quite a bit to find with Lifeboat Mona.

Finian’s Oscar confirmed he’s a horse of massive potential when winning the Tolworth hurdle. I very much hope connections go down the Neptune route as the horse looks crying out for further. He won nicely yesterday but his proven stamina won the race rather than speed, rivals couldn’t cope with the bad ground.

We have a runner at Chepstow this afternoon, Greyed A who takes his chance in the 4.:00. Sam Twiston Davies takes the ride.

Greyed A has to cope with a 5lb raise after winning at Lingfield, he also encounters proper heavy ground for the first time. This race will be a real test come post time.

A maximum field of 18 runners take their chance and the race looks trappy. Quite a few handicap debutants from some shrewd trainers i.e. Cobolobo “Jonjo O’Neill” Mayor Hindrance “Henry Oliver” plus horses with proven form in this grade.

It’s difficult to rule out many of these runners, if you look back at past form the majority have won races at this level. We’ll learn more about Greyed A today, hopefully he can cope with conditions and run a nice race for his owners.