DAILY RACING PREVIEW BY ANDY HOLDING
SUNDAY OCTOBER 12
3.17 CHEPSTOW
For the connections of CELTIC DINO (NAP) (best price 9-4), winning the Welsh Champion Hurdle is arguably a big a deal than any other race in the calendar and Sam Thomas’ chestnut rates a strong choice to land the long-range plan.
The son of Doctor Dino has just had the one start in a handicap but it was a performance to suggest he could turn out to be a very well-treated horse, certainly in the early part of this season at the very least.
Strongly fancied to land the conditional jockey’s handicap on Grand National day, the six-year-old almost got completely wiped out when two horses came down on the bend leading into the straight just after the start and, as a result, he was left way out of his ground with a mountain to climb.
The fact he managed to miraculously work his way into the lead approaching the last was a sign of his class over the rest of the field even though he didn’t quite see the job through, he had to marked down as an extremely unlucky loser.
Not quite good enough for Grade 1 company at Aintree earlier in the campaign, he still performed well in the context of today’s race and with a record of going particularly well fresh, he is likely to take plenty of stopping under conditions that will suit him more than most.
CELTIC DINO – 3-points win@9-4
3.37 GOODWOOD
FAR ABOVE DREAM (best price 17-2) was never competitive at any stage in the Ayr Silver Cup last time out but considering the draw was partly to do with that below-par run (24 of 24), James Owen’s inmate is afforded another chance to show his true worth back over a C&D that saw him run out an impressive winner previously.
As events panned out at the Scottish venue, a high draw ended up being no good to man nor beast over the three-day fixture and he ended up only beating ten of the 25 runner’s home.
Prior to that blob on his dance card, the son of Far Above had taken a useful field of three-year-olds to the cleaners at today’s Sussex venue and according to the data, that effort wasn’t too far away from his career best, which came at Musselburgh a month earlier.
Best when coming off a strong pace over six furlongs, hopefully First Folio will provide the early speed that should set today’s race up to his liking.
FAR ABOVE DREAM – ½ point each-way@17-2