Saturday 11th January 2020

Plenty of good racing today up and down the country. A decent card at Kempton with the Lanzarote Hurdle always a good betting heat. Over at Warwick, The Classic Chase takes place with £75,000 of prize money up for grabs.

I’m hoping Kimberlite Candy goes close in the big race at Warwick.

A cracking run last time out when a clear second in the Becher at Aintree, todays greater test of stamina will suit. Odds of 11-2 are about right with a few bookies five places. Kimberlite Candy looks to have a great chance for Tom Lacey who is one of our trainers.

The Unibet Silviniaco Conti Chase, 2:05 Kempton would have been even more interesting if Altior had been running.

Altior won’t run, Nicky Henderson said but he wasn’t scratched from the race when he should have been under the rules of racing. Bookies didn’t remove Altior from the betting but made him a 7-1 shot when he would have been a 1-3 shot.

For some reason, the BHA then sent a vet to yard and checked on Altior, that was a disgrace on behalf of the BHA.

It then seemed, connections changed their mind and wanted to run but for the sake of transparency, did pull Altior. The situation was very much like Binocular a few years back in the Champion Hurdle.

Lessons can be learned from this but no doubt they won’t be.