So where were we..!

Now the dust has settled; the clocks have ticked forward and we sit in that dead period between Cheltenham's undulating terrain and Liverpool's sharp, flat configuration it is time to unearth six pearls whose wisdom will secure us greater wealth for future days,,,

For Martin Keighley to give Champion Court its hurdle debut in a Grade 2 novice at Cheltenham's real Trials meeting in November is telling you something especially when the market spoke in its favour, the bay gelding cost £130k and was appeared tuned to the minute in the paddock...
The Albert Bartlett looked a very special race this year and will produce a host of future chasing winners. One cloud is the fear that a competitive contest up the Prestbury Hill might have left its mark!

Definity definitely ran in the wrong race. He probably should have been taking on Bensalem et al over three miles rather than the shorter trip of the Centenary race; staying on all too late at the business end! The money was significant; he remains lightly raced, unexposed and classy at this level just below the top flight!

Go All The Way has two excellent pieces of bumper form; an impressive second placing behind Sir Willie's Bishopsfurze at the Punchestown Festival when with John Kiely then a staying on 4th in the Championship event at the Festival when his new trainer's string looked out of form. A certain future winner over much further than this....

Megastar is a Liverpool horse (won last year's bumper there in April), a three miler and a chaser. We haven't seen the best of him yet by some way. Year-in and year-out the Festival Bumper races at Cheltenham and Liverpool and the intermediate Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham produce winner after winner. Cheltenham, at any time of year, produces robust, reliable form due to the going conditions, the big(gish) fields, the generous pace and quality of the opposition...

Mossley was my fancy for the Albert Bartlett. He beat a good field and posted a top class Racing Post Rating at the same time when outstaying his rivals that day at Cheltenham in December. The drop back in trip and the horrible ground put paid to his chances at Warwick next time but the word from the yard was positive. Next year's RSA Chase winner I hear you say! Tough and tenacious for sure; bred to stay - a son of the prodigious Old Vic out of an Irish River mare - if NH can keep him sound, he and Michael Buckley may well have at least two bright stars with which to go to war next season...

Last, but by no means least, is the hugely promising Rubi Light. Racing prominently from the outset and with the ground apparently an unknown factor, Robert Hennessy's Network gelding is surely a star of the future. Punters often get bogged down with Irish-trained horses and their form on muddy ground; so many of them improve for the better ground over here; and remember Rubi wasn't the only offspring of Network to run well at the Festival on the prevailing fastish ground.

So we have these six plus Sprinter Sacre (a son of Network also) and First Lieutenant and the champions Long Run, Hurricane Fly, Big Bucks (Chasing next season please!) and Sizing Europe and you have next year's ten to follow with two reserves.

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon flicking between Betfair, Oddschecker, (RUK on RPTV) and ATR on the telly! It occurred to me as I watched the pink, blue and white squares interchange on the odds comparison site that there was a potentially interesting angle. Perhaps millions of punters do it day in and day out but the penny only dropped in  my purse at that moment! I noted horses at the top of the market flashing pink amongst a sea of blue and vice-versa a strip of blue further down the show amongst a shock of pink. A couple of hours later I had seen Symphonist, Empowering and January win handsomely and a number of other short-priced types fall by the wayside as the market predicted. This is something to monitor more closely I thought! So I will!

I have a created an extensive list of Alert horses (recorded on GG.com) all compiled from various media and updated daily. I think it's time I shared some of these with you. Upham Atom came from a reliable system (produces lots of winners; must check if profitable - suspect it is!) on Sunday. The day job has intervened thus far this week! Watch this space!

Oh and don't forget you heard it here about young Jeremiah McGrath (of course you might have heard it somewhere else as well!) who won on a chance ride (Line Freedom) at Newbury after Mr Geraghty took a tumble from Kerada in an earlier race... ignoring the furore of whether a conditional, claiming 7lbs, should replace an established top jock, this is a boy going places!

Back soon!

Rm (Mark)