Runners at Exeter & Kempton

     King Turgeon Runs at Exeter Today

Today there are three jump meetings at Exeter, Plumpton and Leicester and we have three runners at Exeter, King Turgeon, Behind the Curtain and Lady Balko. There is one meeting on the flat this evening at Kempton, and we have two runners on the all weather, Ocean Heights and Oceanline.

King Turgeon and Behind The Curtain both run in the 1:50pm handicap chase over 3 miles. Gearoid Harney keeps the ride on King Turgeon who is 2/1 favourite for the race.  Our five-year-old ran a cracker on seasonal reappearance at Chepstow last time with Gearoid riding. He pushed a well treated rival all the way to the line, and was this was his best run for us to date. If he is in the same form again this afternoon, he should take all the beating.  He has run Exeter twice before and been a little disappointing, but there were excuses for this and I think he think he has benefited from a summer at grass to grow and strengthen.  He will love today’s conditions and I think he will run well. Behind the Curtain is ridden by Jack Tudor and he is having his first run for the stable in the colours of the David Pipe Racing Club. This is also our nine-year-olds first run for about three years so he has a long absence to overcome. He has shown ability in Ireland and makes his chase debut this afternoon. He is a lovely big horse who jumps well but has had issues and it is just fab to get him back on the track again. He goes nicely at home but we will learn a lot more about him today.

Lady Balko makes her stable debut in the 2:25pm mares novices hurdle over 2m2f. Our four-year-old is an Irish point point winner who goes winner nicely at home. She beat a subsequent winner in the point to point win and the form looks solid.  While she may prefer further in time this looks a good starting point and she is about 15/2 the betting with Jack Tudor riding.

Ocean Heights runs in the 4:30pm flat handicap over a mile with Aiden Brooks riding. This is our geldings first run in a handicap and he is about 20/1 in the betting. He has shown reasonable form on the all-weather and jockey Rob Hornby recommended to keep him to a mile, so hopefully he can be competitive of his mark. Aidan Brooks rode Bashful Boy to be fourth in the Cesarewitch and hopefully he can get a good tune out of this one. Oceanline runs in the 7pm, 2 mile handicap and Rob Hornby rides. He put up an impressive performance to win at Ascot on his last flat start with Rob on board and only incurred a slight rise for that win so shouldn’t be inconvenienced by that tonight. He did run over hurdles at Exeter since that win and was disappointing but I think reverting to the flat and on the all-weather surface again we will see him bounce back to form today. He is about 7/1 second best in the betting and hopefully he can put up a bold show again.

Over the weekend Sizing Pottsie made a pleasing return to action at Uttoxeter. He relished the testing conditions, jumped well and was only just beaten by the short priced favourite. This has given us something to build on going forwards and a trip to run in France may be on the cards.  Meanwhile, at Cheltenham Placenet was disappointing on debut. The only thing I would say is that it was too bad to be true. Nothing has come to light immediately as a reason for the performace, but we will be giving him a full check over this week. His French form and home work suggest he is capable of far better. Rebel Angel ran okay at Wolverhampton on Saturday evening. She travelled well but maybe did not quicken as well as her rivals late on. She may well appreciate a bit further on the flat.

Yesterday at Cheltenham, nothing went right for First Lord Du Cuet. He made a bad mistake at the first fence and Jack Tudor said the sun had a big part to play in this. There were two fallers at the third fence and he was then badly hampered and nearly brought down in the melee. We were left detached last and it was effectively race over. To the horses credit, he did get back into the race before a bad mistake at the last ditch got rid of Jack! He had an incident packed race that is best forgotten, the only good thing is that he seems none the worse for all that happened this morning. We will get him checked over by the physio this week and hopefully he will be back in action again relatively quickly. 

England are back in football action this evening away to North Macedonia, 7:45 pm kick-off. Hopefully they can put up a better performance than they did against Malta the other day and score more goals… we shall see!!

I dreamt last night I was swimming in a sea of orange soda. Then I woke up… and realised it was a fanta sea!! Happy Monday!