Skip to main content

Coral Cup preview

These handicaps are far too hard for my liking, but some people love them. Here's Dan Kelly's take on the time-honoured Coral Cup.

Coral Cup - three against the field

This year's Coral Cup is one of the classiest renewals we've seen in years, and with six last time out winners in the field, many come into the race on the upgrade. That is the usual make up of winners as shown by Carlito Brigante and Spirit River in recent years, however here are my three against the field.

Form of F9090 wouldn't inspire many, if any, yet at the festival last year Son Of Flicka finished a good second to Sir Des Champs off 140. Running here 135 after a generous 7lb drop in the weights following a lacklustre perfomance in the Lanzarote, it takes a leap of faith to expect a return to form, but Donald McCain and Jason Maguire continue to pull out spectacular efforts from their runners with Cinders and Ashes, Our Mick and Overturn doing connections proud.

Again it's to the Lanzarote I goto for another hope, and even though Swincombe Flame didn't frank the form in the muddling mares race yesterday, Act Of Kalanisi deserves a closer look. His 3rd in the Lanzarote was the second time he was sent over a trip in handicap hurdles, his first was when winning the Betfair Mobile Handicap at Ascot of 10st. Brendan Powell takes off 5lbs for a trainer who won this with Burntoakboy in 2007.

Whereas last time out winners are housed in the yards of Hobbs, Pipes and the likes, John Ferguson has some artillery in his yard, and where Cotton Mill and New Years Eve are hogging the limelight today, his Cape Dutch sneaks in under the radar. He has course form following his run behind Edgoardo Sol over an inadequate 2m test, yet either side of this run he had winning form over 2m4f at Carlisle and Musselburgh. With form on quicker ground already in the book, this can only be seen as a plus on what is the quickest conditions in recent Festivals, throw in the typical improving make up, then Cape Dutch is the last time out winner that is of interest at 16s or bigger.

Follow Dan on Twitter, @muffinmannhc. There'll be more from Dan on the remaining days of the Festival.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...
33 comments
Read more

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur...
14 comments
Read more