Hexham – Wednesday 17th November

It was a split day at Limerick yesterday as after a few poor enough runs from three of the selections, we managed to procure a 7/2 winner with Galypso Clermont in the second last race. The Paul Nolan trained horse won quite snugly in the end and may well be one that could follow up next time out if not given too much of a hard time from the assessor. Thoughts move to Hexham for today, and despite there being good action at three different tracks this afternoon – the betting opportunities are few and far between.

Starting off with the 12.40 race, which is a 4 runner novice chase over 3m. This looks a very good race for its type and sees two very interesting horses going over fences. J’ai Froid was highly progressive at the end of last year, culminating in a good second at the Aintree Festival – and looks the type that will improve for fences. However, it’s his main market rival, Emitom, that looks a good price in this race – with the former Grade 2 scorer looking to have a good chance at getting his chase career back on track today. He ran over fences twice last year, and despite failing to score he put up solid efforts in defeat against some good horses. This looks an ideal starting point for him this season and he should be fit and ready to go. With Warren Greatrex’s yard in good form in the last few days, all points to a big run. A best price of 7/4 with Bet365 looks more than fair. 

The 1.15 race is a good 2m novice hurdle and looks to have some very interesting PtP recruits running over hurdles for the first time. It would be very remiss to not mention the form of Donald McCain in recent weeks, and his runner Tim Pat makes appeal here, despite not being one of the best PtP recruits this yard may have had. They had a similar runner at Bangor last week win very easily and money might dictate the chances of this horse on his first start for the yard. He comes from the Colin Bowe yard, who are as good a producer of young stock in Ireland as you’ll find, and this stable often buys shrewdly from these sources. With all this in mind, the price of 5/1 with Bet365 might not knock the doors over, but is a strong each way bet. 

The final race I’ll be covering is the 2.25 race, which is a 2m handicap chase for horses rated between 0-105. Again, I will be keeping things simple by siding with McCain and Hughes in this race, with Donladd looking a good recruit to fences after a decent hurdling career. He won at Carlisle last year and ran well at that venue on his seasonal reappearance when finishing fourth. He should strip a lot fitter for that effort and he makes his chasing debut in a race where he is top weight. Obviously we are yet to see just how he will do over fences, but he was a decent jumper of  hurdle and horses from this yard are often well schooled. At a price of 11/2 with Bet365, who only pay 3 places, he is an each way bet.