Equinties - nice start

Gm Equinauts

FIELD OF GOLD is back in action this weekend. He’s been out injured for a few months and but still has his supports as he’s been put into fave for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Will the ‘should have been’ Guineas winner carry your money?

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

NICE START

How many times have we looked at the Twiston-Davies yard in October and thought ‘yes, they have a couple of nice ones’?

Unfortunately, time after time, those ‘nice ones’ in the first few months of the season don’t stand the test of time when it comes to Cheltenham and Aintree in the spring. Case and point, POTTERS CHARM last season.

Will Nigel start to train his horses with spring in mind, rather than bottoming them out in the first half of the season? Probably not. Anyway, the Twisters unveiled UN SENS A LA VIE over a hurdle yesterday, and he made quite the impression.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with POTTERS CHARM for a number of reasons. He’s quick, he’s wearing the same silks, and, well, Willy Twiston-Davies compared the two in his post-race thoughts. He said: "It's a relief more than anything. This was a nice starting point because Sam was adamant the ground would be safe for him. We think he's very smart and we just wanted to get a run into him before he goes off to Cheltenham.

"We'll see what the entries are like for the Showcase meeting as Sam didn't think he had much of a race today, but the original plan was to go for the Supreme Trial at the Paddy Power meeting.

"We've always thought the world of him. We went steady with him last year because he can get very light, and we thought it was best to put him away rather than go to Aintree after he won his bumper here.

"He's got a lot of natural ability – Sam blamed himself for the mistake two-out – but he's jumped beautifully at home. Hopefully he'll take the Potters Charm route of Cheltenham and then the Formby. He shows us gears at home and he's always been quite flashy in his work. We've got a seriously nice bunch of novice hurdlers and he'd be right up there with MASKED MAN.”

The October Meeting at Cheltenham has been mentioned for him. Shock.

The Twisters have two nice horses on their hands with UN SENS A LA VIE and MASKED MAN. Who is better? Well, to our eye, MASKED MAN was arguably a bit more impressive at Chepstow, but reading between the lines, it seems like the Twisters are fonder of UN SENS A LA VIE. We hope they’ll be campaigned a part, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see MASKED MAN step up in trip for something like the Challow Novices’ Hurdle in time if UN SENS A LA VIE is set for the Formby at Aintree.
Still, let’s hope one of them makes it to the spring in good form, ay.

A PROGRESSIVE ONE

Olly Murphy has revealed the next target for STICKTOTHEPLAN, and he is backing up comments he made about the horse on Friday. The Irish import won the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle in a bit of a rout last week, and he wasn’t stopping at the line over 2m4f.

And yet, when questioned about the horse post-race, he was keen to stress just how much speed he had under the bonnet. In fairness, he won his Listed Galway Novice Hurdle over two miles, but he didn’t have any issue with 2m4f at Listowel in May, so he seems pretty versatile between two miles and 2m4f.

On Friday, Murphy mentioned that he wouldn’t mind stepping down to two miles and taking the hood off him for his next run, and that’s exactly what he is going to do, as the Greatwood Hurdle or Grade 2 Newton Novices’ Hurdle is set to be his next outing.

The handicapper slapped him with a new official rating of 143 yesterday. That’s an eight-pound hike, but to be fair, he beat the 132-rated Kainsbourg by four lengths and the 131-rated Queensbury Boy by 11-and-a-quarter lengths, and he gave five pounds away to both horses.

What else was the handicapper supposed to do?

This will be a tough decision for connections to make, and it will almost be a case of risk and reward. He’d almost certainly be favourite for the Newton Novices’ Hurdle as it’s never a great race, and he could go and dot up in that for roughly £30k. However, the Greatwood is more prestigious, and the winner gets nearly £60k.

Ground seems important to this horse. Murphy doesn’t want to run him on winter ground, so Cheltenham in November may be better than Haydock on Betfair Chase Day. It only takes a small amount of rain to turn Haydock heavy, while Prestbury Park drains quite well. Trying him in the Greatwood off 143 probably isn’t a bad idea. Above all else, it will inform connections whether they have a horse who is still well-handicapped off 143, or if he is at his limit, meaning they’ll have to campaign carefully.


RETIREMENTS AND FUTURE PLANS

So, ANMAAT has been retired, and so has DIEGO VELAZQUEZ. We always knew the latter was going to be retired at the end of this season because he was bought by the Sangsters for the sole purpose of going to the National Stud next year.

He has a proper pedigree, and he is a Group 1 winner. Maybe he wasn’t a complete standout on the track, but if his stud fee is reasonable next year (which we imagine it will be), he could receive a bit of interest being a FRANKEL half-brother to the Group 1 winner BROOME and Group 2 winner POINT LONSDALE.

But, with ANMAAT, we’re actually a bit sad.

He was a two-time Group 1 winner, so he achieved a lot, but you always felt like he had more to give in the right conditions, and for much of this season, his correct conditions just didn’t arrive. We all thought Champions Day was going to be his Gold Cup, but he didn’t quite get there. He seemed like such a genuine horse, and he was clearly loved in the Owen Burrows yard.

He’s a legend in his own right, and we wish him the happiest retirement.

As for Champions Day and it being certain horses’ Gold Cups, one would have to imagine that DOCKLANDS will be revved up to the max for this weekend back at a track he loves. He has three wins, three seconds, and one third from seven outings at the Royal course, and all three of those wins occurred over the same course and distance as this weekend’s Group 1 QEII Stakes.

He’s been handed a small freshen-up from connections, and he is pretty ground versatile. He will be heading abroad soon, but in what looks like a wide-open QEII, the yard seems to fancy their chances. Harry Eustace said: “It’s been a little time since France and he seems better when racing regularly, so with Japan and Hong Kong being possible after Ascot it made sense to take up this option with him.

“I was quite looking forward to trying him again on ground that was a little softer as he ran very well on it in the Balmoral a couple of years ago. It might have hampered some of the others a little more than us, but that said I’m delighted to be running on this ground because we know he likes it.

“The betting represents what everyone feels about his chance, but at this level it’s about small differences. We need everything to go right for us and probably a little to go wrong for the others.

“Field Of Gold could be different to the others in terms of quality, but outside him we've been taking it in turns between ourselves [to win these races], so we’ll give it our best shot again. He seems very well in himself right now.”

He’s an interesting contender in what is a tricky little race.

RISK ON

One bet, one loser yesterday. We liked one on pedigree, LOCAL DERBY in the 16.28, but his drift stinks. In such a poor race we thought he would carry the field but he’s drifted all morning and given he’s owned by a bookmaker it’s best to steer clear unless he gets slammed back in.

Else where we like:

14.22 GEORGE DARLING

A half bet here as this horse hasn’t had a run but the yard is in form and like a winner over fences. This lad is on the up and we think fences will be the making of him over this trip. Very exposed versus the field and should be the best horse in this field by the end of the year, we just need to trust he’s ready to rock and roll today. 100/30 half win bet.

14.48 PRIMOZ

A hard horse to get right but today surely looks to be his day and his last run was good. Even money a shortie but hopefully a goodie.

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