Equinties - Sir Gin-oh!

Gm Equinauts

Racing X got treated to a nice influx of content coming from our home track Newbury this morning as the Berkshire course opened up it’s turf to allow the top yards to gallop their best horses.

All eyes, both on track and online, were zeroed in on the Hendo pair of champ hurdle monster CONSTITUTION HILL and rising star SIR GINO,

and the following piece of footage has already got the rumour mill in full spin!

Here is CONSTITUION HILL making hard work of laying upsides SIR GINO:

Now, yes we don’t know how fit either of them are or how much extra weight each jockey was carrying but to the eye, CONSTITUTION HILL looked very much lethargic next to an easy travelling SIR GINO who appeared to not even be trying!

Nico’s thoughts:

But almost as if punters don’t believe a word that comes out from Seven Barrows, the exciting pair haven’t even got in the horse box home, let alone made their seasonal debut, and people are whacking the words CONSITUTION HILL and retirement in the same sentence:

Wowzers.

Whether it’s click bait or his own genuine belief, there is simply no chance Nicky would have even uttered the r word this morning, even if their work did prove worrying.

What ever the true chat, after that bit of work it’s easy to believe it’ll be a tough and nerve wracking week for Seven Barrows and CONSTITUTIONS HILL’s adoring fans ahead of his tilt at the Fighting Fifth up in Newcastle.

Now, let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

BETFAIR CHASE CHANGES

Has JP McManus played an interesting switch in the Betfair Chase?

More on this later, but first, here are the 9 confirmations for Saturday’s Betfair Chase, the first Grade 1 of the 2024/25 UK Jumps season.

After Tuesday’s confirmation stage, the notable absentee was CORBETTS CROSS, the long-time second-favourite for the race.

Frank Berry, racing manager to McManus, confirmed that he had a “bad scope on Saturday morning” which must be a tough pill to swallow as he had a prep run for this race at Wexford last month.

So, what did McManus do at the last minute? He supplemented CAPODANNO for the contest instead.

Last month, Patrick Mullins said that we’re “as likely to see Willie in a baseball cap at the races as seeing one of ours in the Betfair Chase”, so there’s only one question left to ask.

A NY Yankees cap or a Coolmore stallion hat?

This would be his first start of the season. He won on chase debut, but didn’t perform well after a 298-day break and 229-day break subsequently, so that would have to be a small worry about this weekend.

GREY DAWNING is also lacking race fitness, but Dan Skelton has tried to do as much work as possible in order to prep him fitness-wise for the contest. They do say nothing quite brings on a horse like a race, however.

GOLD TWEET is also an interesting entrant of the 10 confirmations. He’s known to many of us as the 2023 Cleeve Hurdle winner, but since then, he’s nicely won a Grade 2 chase at Auteuil over 2m6f on heavy and had two runs this season to prep him for the race.

Rain is expected this week. The more it comes down, the better his chance gets.

FAST TO KEMPTON

FASTORSLOW has featured in the headlines for some unusual reasons so far this season, notably through the fact of not being confirmed for the King George.

GALOPIN DES CHAMPS’ arch rival is starting his season this week and Derek O’Connor is set to get a big shot at winning a Grade 1 as he’s been picked for the ride.

Some might see this as a questionable booking given plenty of pros would have chomped at the bit to take the ride, but he is a very capable rider who is more than used to nailing it on the big stage. His first Grade 1 success came in 2018 when winning the Irish Gold Cup on EDWULF and his latest came in the Punchestown Champion Bumper in 2021 on KILCRUIT. More importantly, O’Connor has a good record with Martin Brassil and the Mulryans as he partnered DON’TSTOPTHEMUSIC to success at the Punchestown Festival.

How FASTORSLOW runs this weekend won’t define this season. He won this race on seasonal reappearance last year, but you’d imagine this time ultimately he’ll come on for it.

What should be discussed is his Christmas target. Although they didn’t enter him for the King George, they said they might still supplement him for the race which seems like an interesting comment to make.

He is also 0/4 at Leopardstown so that might be swerved, and one would imagine three miles around Kempton would suit him more because he does have 2m4f speed.

In all, it’s not completely off the table that he rocks up to the King George on Boxing Day, but this weekend will tell more.

NICHOLLS FORM

The Paul Nicholls chat that has started this season has been a bit long-winded.

Yes, his stable form has been below what was expected in October, but that was widely publicised for punters to either take on board or ignore.

Ultimately, the key to Nicholls’ runners this year seems to be, shock, them needing a run.

Take IL RIDOTO. He ran like a drain at Chepstow in October, yet he was able to win a Paddy Power Gold Cup in November very easily.

Maybe, just maybe, Nicholls doesn’t want to clean up in October and November (like he usually does in years gone by) and instead, he wants to peak his horses for something like… Cheltenham!?

Why do we bring this up? Well, Nicholls landed a nice treble at Exeter yesterday including bumper distance bet winner MALDINI MILANO.

They may have all been favourite, but it shows there is nothing wrong with his yard, and really could just have been the big man’s new master (long term) plan.

BUMPER RESULTS

Another day, another bumper winner as MALDINI MILANO hosed up on the bridle in the Exeter bumper as expected.

Well done to weekender subscriber GARETH CLARK (garethclark3@) - you’re the winner of yesterdays competition! We will email you later today to organise payment.

03/10/24 KAYLAN 2/1 (11/8 SP) - 1st

08/10/24 LAURA LOU 11/1 & PLAYAWAY GIRL 14/1 - 6th & 9th

09/10/24 JOTO 2/1 6th

09/10/24 ID GO MANIAC 5/2 - 4th

12/10/24 MONEYGARROW 5/1 (13/8 SP) - 1st

16/10/24 KINGSLEY 7/1 - 8th

18/10/24 STRONG RUN 5/1 - 2nd

22/10/24 SECRET SNIPER 5/1 - 3rd

23/10/24 THE LONG WALK 100/30 - 3rd

27/10/24 SIOG GEAL 5/2 - 2nd

27/10/24 QUINNS REWARD 9/1 (14/1 SP) - 7th

27/10/24 TENNESSE TANGO 9/1 (12/1 SP) - 1st

28/10/24 ALLSTITCHEDUP 12/1 - 9th

30/10/24 KOSAC D’OUDAIRIES 11/2 (5/2 SP) - 5th

01/11/24 BEAU GOLD 11/2 - 8th

02/11/24 KAJIKIA 17/2 - 1st

07/11/24 BROOKSIDE LA 5/2 - 4th

07/11/24 EL CAIROS 100/30 - 1st

09/11/24 JOTO 7/1 (16/1 SP) - 4th

09/11/24 LINALENE 6/1 (9/4 SP) - 3rd

09/11/24 SWINGIN SAFARI 11/8 - 1st

11/11/24 OH CLARE 8/1 (3/1) - 4th

12/11/24 LADY TADITA 7/2 (5/4 SP) - 1st

13/11/24 CASTLE CARROCK 4/6 (5/4 distance bet) - 1st

15/11/24 TONY JOE 2/1 & BENMORE 7/1 - 2nd & 3rd

15/11/24 HUNTERS SPRING 11/10 (6/4 distance bet) - 1st

16/11/24 STRONG RUN 11/2 (11/1 SP) - 3rd

18/11/24 MALDINI MILANO 1/ 2 (9/4 distance bet) -1st

RISK ON

The racing is terrible today with, as yet, no stand out bets. If anything comes in, we will post it on X @equinties

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