the ladbroke ascot 18th dec

Tocca Ferro 8-1 will take some stopping, can't see the 8lb he's gone up for last win troubling him. Of course with my ante-post record he probably won't run.

Looks a good renewal at the moment ..

think I may regret going in too quickly on Manyriverstocross ...

Tocca Ferro would be my other pick .. just looks in great form at the moment and progressing the right way

I was hoping to see Oscar Whiskey declared. looks like he'll be Tote Gold Trophy winner instead.

Sorry, just noticed he is declared. Very well handicapped I'd say.

Im obviously hoping Palomar wins by 25l 

the sponsors have cut Oscar into 12/1 from 16/1. Top price is 14/1 at the moment, fwiw.

Surely Aegean Dawn keeps his unbeaten record?

Much harde race than anything he's encountered and up in the weights.

sanctuaire running in limited h cap at exeter

manyriverstocross.......amazing run really in the neptune last season......tanked through the greatwood, then hit a flat spot but rallied up the hill....a good run when the king stable were still in the doldrums, many have come on massively for their 1st run .....needs an electric pace, hopefully will get it....i get the impression that the 2 market leaders have just about used up whatever they had in hand from the handicapper.

the King stable were bang in form the day of the Greatwood. I backed Manyrivers ante-post, and have done so again. He is 4lb higher here and looks a better race. He also hase 2 other runners.

Had my eye on Palomar for a decent handicap for a while myself, but not so sure whether the snow is going to upset plans....and the horse has been on the go most of the summer.

I shall therefore punt on a beast I beleive will be going places over the next few years. Notus de la Tour. The trip may be a tad on the shortside as I see him as a staying chaser in the making, but should the going be on the soft side I can see a decent run from the him off his current rating.

Recession Proof is as short as 12-1 to land the Ladbroke and Quinn is delighted with the progress his runner has made since his debut at Carlisle in October.

"Recession Proof has started his hurdles career in a most pleasing fashion," Quinn wrote on his website. "Having won two of his first three races over obstacles he has earned a rating of 134.

"When he has conditions to suit i.e. two miles in a fast run race, I think he could be made to look very decent indeed. Something like the Ladbroke Hurdle at Ascot could be right up his alley."

from racing post 4th december.

The_LUFCwaffe    -  he did a nice piece of work yesterday at Southwell yesterday so the snow hasnt disrupted us too much.   Wouldnt worry about length of time on the go, Brian had Pendragon and Camerooney on the flat winning in January and still running well in the Cambridgeshire.

sint
the king stable were bang in form from the day after the greatwood....his runners were starting to show much improved form after their fist runs....manyrivers put in a good performance on his debut run of the season.

Ok duffy, you could well be right. I backed manyrivers ante-post in the greatwood but I also backed his Karabak at ascot and was recalling a sharp upward turn in stable form in the build, but thinking back it could have been before the Karabak race, so yeah, fair to say his stable has hit better form since the greatwood.

as for the horse, he was a little keen early in the race imo, should be better for the run.

Tocca Ferro 9-1 with p pow. had some more on that, actually only gone up 7lb, must improve that much.

I'd agree on Tocca Ferro, i think he's still ahead of the handicapper.

Koo.

Thanks for the update, I won't let Palomar drop under the radar. The horse deserves a big race. Thought he was very unlucky in running in the Cesarewitch (jockey error?).

Do like For Non Stop. trip might be on the sharp side but there's no doubting how well handicapped he is for me

Tocca Ferro not certain to run, so would hold your horses.

Post race comments suggested they were looking at The Tote Gold Trophy more than the Ladbroke...

Tho if TF does get the nod.. will be wading in on this seriously progresive animal

The LUFCwaffe - I was on Palomar at huge odds for the Cesarewich and have watched upteen reruns of the race since. The horse got stuck in amongst lots of horses and just couldnt get going. I think with a clear run he would have been a bit closer but wouldnt have won so I think it would have been a bit harsh to blame Jimmy Quinn. But I will anyway!
Koo - I take it youre the Koo in the Koo racing club? What do you put Palomars improvement down to? Is he wearing a different noseband? Whatever it is its worked! Good luck in the Ladbroke.

theres been a change of bridle to help him settle which has worked.  Also hes had a bit more juice in the ground.   He was also a sick horse at York the last time he ran there,  the notes should be included in the form as it was reported to the stewards on the day that he scoped badly.   Once we gave him some anti biotics he picked up and won nto at market rasen.   I think Timeform incl the bad scope but still said he ran badly which is harsh if the horse is ill.

So its a combination of those 3 for me not sure which is the biggest factor. 

In the ces as well,  the biggest factor for me was when he got knocked nearly over about 5-6f out.   jimmy said he just started creeping forward and got knocked completely sideways and lost ground and momentum,  watching on RUK its hard to see but yolu can see something happened as a horses head flies up quickly in the air.   Sadly that was us.   They didnt go quick enough for him as he needs a pace to run at so fingers crossed for pace in the Ladbroke for us

Tocca Ferro could head to the Ladbroke Hurdle as part of a preparation for a potential Champion Hurdle tilt.

Emma Lavelle's charge has won two races this season and the trainer is pondering his potential options in the spring.

"I think that he's gone up seven pounds for winning his race at Newbury, he's on a mark of 141 and I'm not a big fan of running a horse like him in the County Hurdle," she said.

"He would need to improve a fair bit to be at the right end of the running in the Champion Hurdle so if things panned out and went well then obviously there would be a chance that we could look at something like the Champion but if not then I'd imagine that he would probably miss Cheltenham and then we'd have a look at the Imperial Cup."

Ascot aim
But first he is set to head to Ascot on Saturday week.

"At the moment he seems in very good order and fingers crossed that that will remain and we can have a look at The Ladbroke," Lavelle added.

"He's a young horse with a lot of potential and I don't want to do too much with him this year so his future probably lies over fences but if he's bouncing and well and racing is actually on, then with the way that the weather looks for the rest of the winter, I think we'd be quite keen just to get him out and run him again."

Lavelle has few concerns with underfoot conditions at the Berkshire venue:

"As long as the ground is safe you know, as long as it's good and on the easier side of that i'd have no problem with running him

Why is Tocca 9s too big ? As mentioned above maybe non-runner will wait.

Is he A MACHINE Big Bucks?

Thanks for the reply Koo. I meant a different brindle not noseband. I watched his win at MR and thought Id spotted like a ring around his nose that id not seen before which has obviously helped him settle better, he certainly did it nicely that day. Does Brian intend running Bothy as well do you know? Two good shots imo.

Thanks Dan, just wanted to be certain.

I quite like Mille Chief for this. Big swing in the weights with Aegean Dawn and a long way clear of the third in that race. The way King has talked about him he should be their first choice, 10/1 doesn't seem to bad to me. Very competitive race though.

totally agree resner,have taken the 10s,big eyecatcher last time out,still think hes well handicapped,no reason why he wont beat the favourite

bettilyerded, yeah bothy goes to ladbroke next saturday. all gone well since cheltenham, just hope he can find a bit of improvement from somewhere. looks a hotter race than the greatwood to me and he probably had the run of the race a bit there.

form boost for your one Dan and ditto for Manyriverstocross.

yeah great couple of boosts today sint, hopefully not so much that the hcper moves us up again though - they've both had good reasons to improve today!

Aye. Any Given Day aswell forgot him back in 4th.

Just checked the market here and my fancy Manyrivers is trading at 18's , wonder if he might run now given they have Mille Chief. I have emailed the stable but they did say he'd be coming for this race so fingers crossed.

Don't see why he wouldn't run both sint, it's such a massive prize.

weather forecast says ascot will hit minus 5 on thursday night

My god. What a nuisance.

Mille Chief

King told the Racing Post: "He'll improve again from his run at Ascot, because it's taken a bit of time to get him straight. He does everything so easily. He's exhausted every possible lead horse in the yard, kicking them out of the way without doing much.

"We'll go to Ascot and take it from there. He's up 9lb but it could have been worse."

Mille Chief is currently the 7-1 second favourite with Skybet for the listed contest with his nemesis, Aegean Dawn heading the market at 4-1.

Thanks Dan. Good luck if Saturday goes ahead.

Oscar Whisky still big at 12's

have a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/319

to hit minus 6 on thursday night with some sleet during thursday, then on friday never get above minus 1 during the day and minus 4 in the evening.....so will require mammoth effort to get racing on and i assume friday is a gonner already if the forecast is right

manyrivers not running

Yup. Disappointing.

Maybe they think he cant beat Mille Cheif orr current maek ? Or perhaps just want to send somewhere else, perhaps up in trip ?

* off

Sint - i like this horse too, but needs a trip imo (though not as obviously at TB Kid)

ascot have said 50/50 that saturday goes ahead - probably means that real chances are worse than that

duffy, if the race is abandoned due to weather, we've still done our money due to him being taken out at the 5 day stage ..

sint,
if abandonned i think you will get money back, in fact even if
gets moved to a different track  all ante-post bets are off as far as i know

you sure  snaafi ? we were backing him last week when there were 60 odd entries ..

well put it this way, if abandonned the bookies wont have to pay on any winners so i dont think they shd collect any losers. I had the reverse once where i had a horse at a nice price but they moved the race to another track and bet was voided.
Easiest thing and for peace of mind is to check your bookies website, they shd have ante post rules section somewhere on there.

If abandoned all ante-post bets are void and you get your money back.

King says something along the lines of.
I dont have anything at home that can work with mile cheif.

Id say thats why many rivers doesnt run.

Dan, what you make of your other runner. If the ground is g/s or better I really like him and think the race could be set up for him sitting just of Drill Sargent?

Sorry king said that in the weekender.

Abbot, I kindly got a reply from Alan King and he said the horse met with a minor set-back.

oh right cheers sint. just read the weekender and he was so bullish aboyt m c i thought that might have been why. Hopefully hes back soon, really nice horse though i think 2m4f may be his next winning distance.

Hi abbott, he'll run if he gets in but needs a few tom drop out. After haydock brian said he needed a wind op and the vet that carried it out said he'd needed it badly. We'll change the tactics too as he wasn't getting home from the front, so he'll sit mid div and be ridden as quietly as possible. Ryan Mahon's been booked, we'll ask for the same ride he gave woolcombe folly last week!! he's a lovely horse, we just haven't been able to put him in races he can win due to his hcp mark, he's been running for place money for a long time now. If he doesn't get in this saturday there's a nice race at musselburgh on new years day which i think he's have a chance in off 131 given a quiet ride. I'd love to see him win again he's still so game and enthusiastic!

Good stuff Dan I hope you get a good run from him. Its a pity that hes being dropped out I have a feeling that drill Sergent will set a break neck pace and anything sitting in the next few may benefit from it. I had read about the wind op in the weekender and think he is on a winnable mark on goodish ground and flat track so ill have a bit on in the hope a few come out.
Wd with Lethal Glaze, watched him schooling on a clip on Brian's facebook and he looked a natural had a wee bit on him Tuesday.

TOCCA FERRO, 8-1 third favourite with the sponsors for Saturday's Ladbroke Hurdle at Ascot, will miss the race after sufferinga minor setback on Thursday morning

He missed the cut abbott, probably the best thing for the horse really. Cheers re LG, hurdled like an old hcper didn't he!

yes very impressive, good eye for hurdlers mate wd with your buys..
Theres a 0-135 Handicap hurdle at Kempton on the 27th that might suit Ultimate, Ronaldo De Mottes won it last year and Palomar was 6th.
Gl with Bothy at the weekend.

cheers, we'll probably stick him in there in case muss looks like being off.

highly doubt this being on but cant believe karasenir hasnt had more of a mention.

10.7 gives him a great chance, glad johnson has chosen him as well.

not that great a jumper imo Glenn. Very novicey.

But yeah looks like being off

Called off sadly

wouldnt think theres much chance of salvaging a handicap either

What a shame! They'll probably save the long walk, maybe they can slot both races in somewhere.

think there should be more effort to save ladbroke. owners denied a big pot and with betting levy already down these kind of races make a big dent. reading between the lines when lost last year it would have been moved to same newbury meet as the long walk was between xmas and new year but sportingbet who sponsor the challow hurdle on that card wouldnt play ball - shame on them

they may try to put it on at wincanton on boxing day. Hope so.

i got told that on Sat pmt - only 50k though in total money though and all new entries