Tuesday 24th April 2018

The racing on Saturday made enjoyable viewing, Joe Farrell & Ballyoptic served up a thrilling finish to the Scottish National. Watching Moon Racer come back to winning ways was great. This was an excellent training effort by David Pipe. Moon Racer had every problem you could think of for the past two years and was nearly lost to colic last Summer.

Over on the flat, Defoe was very impressive at Newbury. He won like a good horse and continued the sound start to the flat season from a punting point of view.

At Yarmouth today in the 2:25 Magical Sight is worth keeping an eye on. He works like a very good horse but isn’t totally straight forward. The Haggas yard haven’t quite hit form yet this season so today’s odds look a bit tight. Magical Sight is a horse to put in your tracker even if he doesn’t show much this afternoon. He’s well above average and will be Listed class come end of the season.

We have a runner today at Ludlow, Bishop Of Bling makes his seasonal debut in the 4:05. I switched Bishop Of Bling to trainer Alastair Ralph at the start of the year as per a few other horses. Bishop Of Bling showed up well in Ireland when we bought him but didn’t turn up in great form.

The horse had a few problems that needed ironing out, nothing big, but would have benefited from a holiday. In hindsight we should have turned BOB away. Despite this, Bishop Of Bling showed ability under both codes.

Bishop Of Bling seems in good form at home and we’ve been able to prep the horse our way for the first time. BOB will improve for the run whilst the trip of 2m5f is a question mark. This is a decent race for the grade but a fair starting point for the season ahead.

The excellent Punchestown Festival starts today, 5 days of great jumps racing. The trainer championship between Elliott & Mullins will also be decided. The big race on day one is the Grade 1 Champion Chase. Douvan, Min & Un De Sceaux all taking each other on.

Min is running at his correct trip but comes into the race on the back of a hard season. Who knows what might have happened if Douvan stayed on his feet at Cheltenham? If Douvan retains his full ability, I would have him beating Min every time. I hope we see Douvan come back to his brilliant best today, if he does he’ll win and the odds of even money will have looked big.