DAILY RACING PREVIEW BY ANDY HOLDING
FRIDAY OCTOBER 10
1.50 NEWMARKET
CALENDAR GIRL (best price 7-2) may only be rated 91 and has yet to tackle pattern company but she has plenty of attributes to suggest she could easily bridge the gap and Owen Burrow’s filly rates a strong choice to back up that view.
Beaten at short odds at Epsom two starts ago, the daughter of Advertise was extremely well backed to make amends in a competitive sales race at Doncaster last time out and she duly justified 7-2 second favouritism by scoring with a bit to spare.
Coming from a good way back in a strongly run event, she cut down plenty who have gone on to boost the form subsequently, most notably Brussels and Jel Pepper, and with today’s galloping seven-furlongs on good ground seen as positive factors regarding her chances, this promising filly with a good turn of foot can round off her season on a high.
CALENDAR GIRL – 1-point win@7-2
3.43 CHEPSTOW
Probably not the classiest version of this traditional Grade 2 hurdle but it’s still competitive enough and JACK HYDE (best price 7-1) is fancied to put his fitness edge to good use.
Fergal O’Brien has won this prize twice in recent times, so he clearly knows what kind of attributes are required and his son of Soldier Of Fortune doesn’t look out of place at this level.
He may have been a 1-7 poke when making a successful return to the fray at Newton Abbot recently but at least the runner-up has done the form no harm since, and he impressed with the way he went about his work throughout.
If critical, he has been a shade keen in the past, but that run 31 days could turn out to be a stroke of genius by connections, using it as an exercise in taking the fizz out of his system and we know he can keep galloping for 2m4f, as his victory at Southwell last season testifies.
Unlikely to be quite good enough when the big boys come out to play later in the season, today’s contest is very much seen as his Champion Hurdle, and he deserves to be played accordingly.
JACK HYDE – 1-point each-way@7-1
4.45 NEWMARKET
A tough one to end the card but MISS JUSTICE (best price 12-1) could well turn out to be the answer if, as expected, she proves more effective over today’s trip than over 1m4f here last time out.
John & Thady Gosden’s filly was a bit free through the early part of a similar contest two weeks ago but that didn’t stop her looming up looking the most likely winner approaching the two-furlong pole.
Marginally hitting the from inside the final furlong, it was from that point when her engine began to cut out and inconceivably, she ended up finishing out of the frame, which seemed an impossibility 20 seconds earlier.
Prior to that commendable effort, she had run out a game winner from the useful Revoir at Salisbury over 1m2f and providing James Doyle can get her to switch off a little better this time around, a return to HQ can yield maximum rewards.
MISS JUSTICE – ½ point each-way@12-1