DAILY RACING PREVIEW BY ANDY HOLDING
SATURDAY JANUARY 3
2.05 WINCANTON
PREMIER carries the colours that have been a regular feature in the winner’s enclosure throughout the winter, and this improving juvenile is fancied to provide the same owners more joy off what still appears to be a workable mark.
It is probably fair to say Warren Greatrex’s inmate was ridden with handicaps in mind on his first two starts over hurdles and following a promising beginning on his opening outing in this sphere, he came good at the second time of asking at Taunton last time out.
Once again, dropped out with a view to getting him settled, the son of Dariyan still had plenty on his plate turning for home but with the powerful run from two out, he eventually made his way to the top of the leaderboard where it mattered most.
Posting a useful speed figure for the grade, the form was nicely franked by Rukaana at Windsor the other day (landed a gamble) and with the potential of even more to come, this strong travelling type should get the perfect set-up for him to come through strongly at the business end.
PREMIER – 1-point win@7-2
3.35 ASCOT
The first three in the market all featured heavily in competitive handicaps at Ascot pre-Christmas but the race HOT FUZZ (NAP) finished second in was by far and away the strongest and, back at track where he is proven over the C&D, Tom Dascombe’s inmate cam stamp his authority on proceedings.
The five-year-old was always to the fore at the Berkshire venue and was still handily placed jumping three out but a big injection of pace by the eventual winner, Wilful, caught him out and he soon became a little outpaced.
Rallying to the call, did he, however, stay on in determined fashion to secure the runner-up spot late on and when you consider he managed to outrun the hugely improved Alexei in that time frame, his effort deserves extra merit.
Only once before has the son of Calyx stepped foot on the Esher turf and that visit resulted in him making all the running to record a smooth success and in a race where there looks to be no obvious front runner apart from him, a positive ride at the head of affairs can see him repeat the dose.
HOT FUZZ – 1-point win@5-2