Review of the day

It can be a tough game at times…

Having been backed into 5/2 favouritism, from 6/1 this morning (quite a move, even allowing for a significant withdrawal), Tullyraine then proceeded to lead every yard of the way at Bangor – apart from the final 20 (which are ofcourse the only ones that matter).

He was caught close home by Herdsman, who had traded at 1000 in-running a few fences earlier, at which point he looked more likely to be pulled up than he did win.

I think the word I am looking for is ‘gutting’…

I know these thing happen in racing – but why do they happen so often to TVB tips ? We never seem to be on the other of them, that’s for sure.
We had one trade at 1/10 and get beaten on Saturday; today it was 1/20. We are steadily edging towards are next 1/100 – I can feel it in my bones !

And unfortunately, things didn’t get any better in the next race…

Again, Loch Ba was backed into favouritism, but again he managed to find one too good for him.

In fairness, Loch Ba was never travelling that smoothly in the race. He was sloppy at a few jumps and did well to get as close as he did.

It was also a bit irritating that the winner, Midnight Appeal, was pickable.
A little like Mountainous (who also ran a cracking race to finish third), he was no 20/1+ shot.

Somehow, he managed to sneak completely under my radar though (I’ve no idea how really). I don’t suppose I would have tipped him – but I might have at least alerted you to him (if I had noticed him, that is !!).

If I had followed my instinct’s we could actually have had our 1.01 loser in the first race on the card !
You won’t be surprised to hear that I did consider tipping Venetia’s Opera Og and he traded at that price after jumping the last 3 lengths clear.

However, he tired up the run in and ultimately only finished third.

It was Allerton who got to him, with Ballylifen third. Hot Whiskey finished fourth and Morgans Bay fifth.

These were the 5 horses I named when previewing the race. At various points in the last half mile, all 5 looked like they might win. Perhaps you can now understand why I chose to swerve the race…

Over at Exeter, Twice Returned was well beaten in the handicap hurdle.

His jumping wasn’t up to scratch against more experienced campaigners.

Smad Place won the novice chase – but he made it look hard work.

I would still be keen to take him on when he moves up a grade.

Finally, neither Quaddick Lake nor Chemistry Master were able to get the better of favourite Horizontal Speed in the 3:10 race.
However, Waterunder was – and he ran out a game winner…

There is some reasonable racing tomorrow – but I am considering taking the day off…

I really want to be fresh for the start of the Open meeting at Cheltenham on Friday –and if I end up enduring another afternoon like today, I don’t think that will be the case !
I’ll double check this evening, to make sure there is nothing running that we simply must be on – but assuming there isn’t, I will have a rest day tomorrow.

I’ll confirm either way in an email tomorrow morning, which will be issued at the normal time.

TVB.