DAILY RACING PREVIEW BY ANDY HOLDING
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 22
4.20 FONTWELL
From not being able to buy a winner for seemingly ages, Venetia Williams has all of sudden burst back into life over the last few days and the Herefordshire handler’s good run can continue with COL DU PRE, who ran well last time in the period when things were going the shape of the pear.
In-keeping with the general poor form of the yard this season, the five-year-old didn’t show much on his first two starts but at his local track last time out, he perked up in no uncertain fashion.
In what turned out to be a well-run affair at the Midland venue, the son of Taj Mahal was still bang in contention at the second last and although he couldn’t quite go with the first two from that juncture, he kept on gamely to finish a close-up third behind two improvers.
Surprisingly dropped again to a mark of 116 subsequently, his new rating allows him to drop a grade into class 4 company and with testing conditions more in his favour than most, he rates a strong choice to add to his two other career victories.
COL DE PRE – 1-point win@9-2
5.00 NAAS
A race much sought after and it has attracted a useful and competitive field accordingly.
As usual, J P McManus has a strong hand in his quest to win it again but the five in the famous green and gold silks might not have things all their own way up against HE’S GORGEOUS and MAGIC MCCOLGAN and the pair are taken against the field.
The former easily has the best singular piece of form next to his name courtesy of his fine effort behind Romeo Coolio & Co in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown over Christmas and even though he failed to justify favouritism off the back of that run at Down Royal last time out, it still wasn’t a bad performance in the context of today’s race.
Normally a good jumper, for some reason he wasn’t as fluent as he might have been in the north but it was still likeable to see the way he battled back from adversity following a slip on landing two out to end up getting back off the canvas to finish an honourable second.
On the evidence of that display and several others in the past, he is crying out to stepped back to to today’s trip and he has the class to cast aside the burden of top weight.
The latter isn’t one of Willie Mullins’ stars but she was thought highly enough of to contest last season’s Mares Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival and she looks to be coming along nicely over fences on recent evidence.
Her latest effort when she kept on well to finish runner-up to the useful mare The Great Nudie over today’s C&D allowed her to post a career high speed figure and a repeat of something along those lines could easily see her in the mix.
HE’S GORGEOUS – ½ point each-way@6-1 (four places)
MAGIC MCCOLGAN – ½ point each-way@17-2 (four places)