Twice As Good?

Cheltenham's brilliance last week is still fresh in my mind, my Sky+ has been playing the Champion Hurdle over and over and that epic Gold Cup has had its fair share of viewing too. The superiority of that whole meeting has taken its toll though as the mediocrity of this weeks racing has been even worse than advertised. Some may call me a pessimist but as I see it.. There was no stand out race on Monday and the most exciting thing to happen all of Tuesday was in the 5th race at Southwell when Monsieur Jamie left jockey Greg Fairley in the stalls. Fortunately for backers some firms gave back the stakes on Monsieur Jamie.

The blog had a luckless day yesterday with both advised e/way bets finishing outside of the places. Not In The Clock never really got involed at all and even though I thought the step up in trip would suit I now feel he needs a couple of furlongs shorter. The other runner, Little Eaglet, was advised at 33/1 last night and he looked like he was booked for atleast a place three hurdles from home. He touched 3.25 (9/4) in-running on Betfair to win the race and I was stupid enough not to lay him off in-running for a guaranteed profit. There was plenty of promise in the run though and if dropped in trip or ridden to see out 3m next time he could be a good bet. He's sure to be dropped an exra couple of lbs for the run too which will help.

Selections:
Not In The Clock 1pts e/way @ 6/1+. Result - 8th @ 14/1. -2pts.
Little Eaglet 0.5pts e/way @ 33 advised. Result - 8th @ 20/1. -1pts.

Daily Profit: -3pts
Overall Profit: -1.9pts.

The action tomorrow looks a little better with Haydock's turn up. A couple of better races on the cards with expensive purchase Ebanour likely to be very hard to beat in the final race on the card (17:30). As for blog selections I look towards Hereford:

14:30 Hereford Handicap Chase
Jack's Lad has struggled since winning at Folkestone in December, Tom David takes over today and claims 5lb which may help his chances for Tim Vaughan who continues to grind out results. Charlie Longsdon is firing in winners of late and his runner Mister Watzisname has to enter calculations even though on bare form he looks to have plenty to find. By far the most interesting runner is Kercabellec. He's a 13yo now and in the past he's been moody and one not to put too uch trust in but he looked to have turned a corner when running away with his last race. He has a 7lb penalty for an easy success over 3 miles at Huntingdon last time out, he is due to go up a further 7lb in the future so he should be well in here. Even more so after you see that he was 21lb out of the handicap when hacking up at Huntingdon. He's just 3lb 'wrong' here and this race is on Official Ratings 11lb weaker than the race he last contested. Joe Cornwall claims 7lb off his back and if he is the same mood he will taken plenty of stopping dropped in trip. He's the sort to go in again having got his head infront once and confidence is high about this ones chances.

Selection:
Kercabellec 2pts win @ 5/2+ (Currently trading at 3.5 on Betfair).

I added an Ante-post page to my blog yesterday and I am putting up my first selection today:

17:35 Meydan Dubai World Cup (26/03/2011)
The Emirates Airline sponsored race hands out the biggest price in Racing, A huge $10,000,000. Last year this race was won by Gloria De Campeao in a tight 3-way finish with Lizard's Desire and Allybar filling 2nd and 3rd respectively. This years renewal looks just as open with the likes of 8 time group winner and 4th last year Gio Ponti, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Poet's Voice, the high-class Gitano Hernando who is having his last start for Marco Botti (6th in this race last year), Irish Champion Stakes winner Cape Blanco and Japanese raider Buena Vista ridden by Ryan Moore. The current favourite is Twice Over, trained by Henry Cecil and ridde by Tom Queally, he is also my selection for the race. Though he does look short enough at 9/4 for such a competitive race I feel he is head and shoulders better than these. Based on RPR (Racing Post Ratings) he holds plenty of these on previous form. Twice Over earned himself a RPR of 127 when 1/2 length behind Rip Van Winkle in the Juddmonte International at York (Level weights) last August, Cape Blanco was rated exactly the same (RPR127) when beating Rip Van Winkle in the Irish Champion Stakes but he was receiving 7lb from that rival who was well below par (Twice Over back in third). Poet's Voice also beat a below par Rip Van Winkle last season in the QEII but only acheived a RPR of 123 in receipt of 4lb. When Twice Over ran in this race last year (10th) he was off the back of a long break and really convinced all season. The one time he did look his potent self last season was his last start of the year when he ran out a ready winner in the Emirates Airline Champion Stakes bating Vison D'Etat by just under 2 lengths with Arlington Million winner Debussy back in 3rd (with a line through Debussy he holds Gio Ponti) and Gitano Hernando was back in 4th, easily beaten. He travelled over much earlier this year, maybe unsettled last year when he ran in this, and he's had a prep race for this years Dubai World Cup in which he won Round 3 of the Al Maktoum Challenge (winners of R2 and R3 have a good record in the World Cup). It's been reported that Twice Over has been working very well at his base camp and connections expect a big run from him now back to his best.

Selection:
Twice Over 2pts win @ 9/4 Bet365.

Best of luck with all your bets today.