I’ve had Merry King on my mind
for this years Welsh National ever since his narrow defeat by Cannington Brook
at Haydock, last December.
At the time, I thought it a huge
run for a horse having only it’s fourth outing over fences…
The Haydock race was run in the
same kind of desperate conditions that the Welsh National is often run in and
Merry King proved that day that they hold no fears for him…
The really impressive thing about
the run was that Merry King was only 5 years old at the time – with another 12
months on his back, I would expect him to have strengthened further.
Prior to his run at Haydock,
Merry King lost out in a close finish at Newbury to the now 153 rated Rolling
Aces. As I said yesterday, that piece of form makes him look well
handicapped…
And nothing that happened in
yesterdays Hennessy made me feel any different.
It is particularly interesting to
note that the horses who filled the first 3 places in the Ascot race in
which Merry King made his seasonal debut, finished in the first 6 yesterday
(including the winner Triolo D’Alene). That suggests the race was stronger than
it might have appeared...
Furthermore, the performance that
Merry King himself put in yesterday, looked to me to be that of a horse who
needs a longer trip.
He was staying on stoutly in the
closing stages of the contest…
We therefore have a young,
unexposed chaser, who has proven he can handle desperate conditions and who
seems likely to improve for a step up in trip.
He is also on a handicap mark
that looks to be very fair, based on at least a coupe of pieces of form.
In short, I doubt there will be
many horses who turn up for the Welsh National with better credentials than he
has - and at 16/1 he is a very good bet.
0.5pt win Merry King
16/1
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