17th January - Race review

As is often the case, I missed this afternoon’s race, as I was out on the school run.
Whenever that happens, I try my best to avoid finding out the result before I’ve had chance to watch the race.
That can be a bit tricky, as I’ve a few friends who are keen to let me know when things have gone well (they’ve been quite quiet lately !!).
For whatever reason, non of them sent me a text after the race today, so I was fearing the worse.
Ofcourse, if I’d looked on the blog and seen 5 unmoderated comments, I might have become a little more optimistic !

Thanks for the positive feedback. I won’t respond to the comments individually, but it is nice to know that there are at least a few of you still rooting for the selections, despite the recent indifferent run of form.
I think Ciaran (Viller Viper) in particular, deserved today’s success – I’m just glad you were on him !!

With regard to the race itself, then it went pretty much to plan…
Ockey De Neulliac, was again held up out the back and despite some indifferent jumping, he once again arrived at the second last, pulling the proverbial train. Another iffy jump followed – but he got over safely, did the same at the last and sauntered home by 11 lenghts.
In fairness he never really looked that likely to fall - and his inexperienced jockey was clearly keen to stay on board ! I’m not sure I would be overly keen to support him in a bigger field – or up significantly in class – but in today’s grade with a small field, he was cleary streets better than his rivals…
Where I think he might remain interesting, is if he is switched back to hurdles – though the fact his rating is likely to be the best part of a stone lower than his chase rating, is likely to mean that there will be little value in his price.

Anyway, it was good to get a winner and move back into the black for the month.
And as for my concerns about tipping a Ferdy horse the night before – they proved completely unfounded !!