Equinties - switch ricci

Gm Equinauts

We’ve got five days now until Cheltenham. Just five days.

And we’re going to try giveaway another five bet slips to get the count to ten! Ten bet slips up for grabs… you’re welcome!

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Let’s dive in.

HEADINE ROUND UP

HENDOS HOPPERS

Nicky Henderson gets his horses to jump, doesn’t he!? Very rarely do see a horse under Nicky’s tutelage not know what to do at a fence but it’s his big stars who just look different beasts to every one else. 

CONSTITUTION HILL takes a stride from a different postcode and soars over, JONBON is so quick in the air that he can get in tight and still land running, and SIR GINO is, well, simply a stag. 

Some lucky people were down at Hendo’s gallops yesterday to see his stars put in what was probably their final bit of schooling ahead of next week’s Cheltenham Festival. Of course, the clip that did the rounds on social media was from CONNY HILL because he absolutely flew.

JONBON also looked so very good:

And JANGO BAIE, as much as people may be thinking he has an uphill battle in the Arkle, looks very quick over his fences:

All three horses will have a bit of a task on their hands regarding quick early pace. CONSTITUTION HILL will have the Gigginstown pair, JONBON will have SOLNESS, and JANGO BAIE could well be the one to force the pace. It’s huge that all three are supremely slick jumpers.

Yes, JANGO BAIE may lack the tactical speed on the Flat, but all three won’t lose lengths at their obstacles, and that’s half the battle when one goes off at a mad pace in front. Nicky Henderson may have had a rough time of things at last year’s Festival, but he has three nice Grade 1 chances among others. Could this be one of the best Cheltenham’s Henderson has had in a long time?

Add LUCKY PLACE into the mix as well as JERIKO DU REPONET in the Pertemps, EAST INDIA EXPRESS in the boy’s race, and maybe even MISTER COFFEY in the Cross Country, and this could well be a very prosperous week for the boss of Seven Barrows.

Oh, and Jerry McGrath, a source of plenty of Henderson’s horses, had his say on JANGO BAIE and more. He said: "We saw Jango Baie this morning and I think that's the best he's ever schooled. He's entitled to run in the Arkle. We would have obviously loved to have Sir Gino in there, but that's life. 

"We thought he'd stay at two and a half miles and we'd keep him for Aintree because he would have close to top weight in a handicap and it wouldn't have been best for him. But the way it's transpired we thought it would be best to have him in the Arkle. He was always in the race, so we didn't have to supplement him.

"I think Lucky Place is a great each-way shout in the Stayers' Hurdle on Thursday as he's unexposed over the trip."

THE WATERING CAN

The first certainty of the Cheltenham Festival has landed, and we’re not even in the correct week. That’s right, the track will water thanks to the nice dry spell that Gloucestershire has been experiencing over the last few days… and the dry spell that they are set to continue having.

As of yesterday afternoon, the track conditions were drying to officially good to soft, soft in places, thanks to warm daytimes and a lack of frost.

Clerk of the course Jon Pullin has suggested that watering could start today, and we assume that the proceeding volume of water put on the track will all depend on what rain we will get on Friday.

On the state of play, Pullin said: "We’re certainly starting to see it dry a little bit quicker now. We’ve been dry since last Thursday and we’ve had some pretty warm afternoons for the last few days around 13 or 14 degrees.

"The forecast for Thursday is very much the same, another warm day. Then there’s some uncertainty as to how much rain we may see on Friday. Some of the forecasts are showing just a few light showers, 1-2mm. Others are saying we might get a little bit more than that, maybe 3-4mm.

"We may start tomorrow, just depending on what the updated forecast says. I think particularly the New course we’ll need to irrigate because, again, next week is looking dry.

“We'll have cooler temperatures, only nine or ten degrees, but largely dry through the week so I think we’ll need to do something for the New course to keep us in a good place for Thursday."

Those of you who were predicting good ground for Cheltenham were dreaming. However, artificial good to soft, maybe even soft ground, by the time of that Supreme roar is a real possibility. That’s a shame, really. It’ll be no excuses ground and the only horses who won’t go on it will be the mudlarks. Ah well. 

SWITCH RICCI

“If you want to call me Switch Ricci, then fair enough” - that was the line from Rich Ricci at last night’s Sun Racing preview regarding LOSSIEMOUTH.

Lol!

Having planned LOSSIEMOUTH towards the Champion Hurdle for two years, and despite Mullins leaning towards the Champion Hurdle route a few days ago in his Sporting Life stable tour, doubt was cast over the whole situation last night thanks to Ricci’s comments.

We don’t really want to fuel the fire that is pumping out these fairly meaningless updates about ‘will they, won’t they’, but Willie Mullins bingo has such a hold on the build-up to Cheltenham it’s unbelievable. 

So, in case people reading this newsletter missed it last night, it’s only fair to share what has been said. 

Ricci said: “We’ve campaigned Lossiemouth to run in the Champion Hurdle but she’s had a horrible fall… We had a chat with Willie last night, we’ll wait until the weekend. I want to know who Paul want’s to ride…

“She’s only 6, the campaign this year hasn’t worked. It’ll be a weekend decision”.

There are ways to read into this windy LOSSIEMOUTH stuff. Firstly, we know Ricci is a sporting man, and he would want a Champion Hurdle runner if the contender were good enough but he’s a clever man too and therefore, might have made up his mind that a Champion Hurdle bid will prove futile.

Secondly, she should win the Mares should she go and even if that takes away from both the Champion Hurdle as an entertainment prospect and the Mares as a betting prospect, it makes sense for Richi.

We would love love love to see the big clash of CONSTITUTION HILL, BDA and LOSSIEMOUTH but we’re expecting her to go win the Mares.

RISK ON

We’ve been betting bad horses this month and not keen on wasting more ammo in weak affairs.

Well play the bumper for the competition and that’s it.

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