Inside The Notebook – Week 11 07/02/2017

Scarcely believable but another Tuesday is here and with it the latest edition of ‘Inside The Notebook.’ Just 5 weeks to go until the Cheltenhan Festival. You can see our latest Road To Cheltenham article but this is more of a long term look into the future. Most of these are well capable of winning races this season but they are ones to continue to keep onside into next year and beyond. Follow @myracingtips for the latest gossip, news and free horse racing tips.

Some Are Lucky

Tom George and Adrian Heskin have struck up an excellent relationship this season and they could have plenty of fun to come with this son of Gold Well. He looked all over the winner at Leicester when tanking his way to the front early in the straight but he began to pay for those overexertions two out and ended up finishing a distant third. That isn’t the first time this season he has looked as if a step down in trip to two and a half miles would be better for him and with his sole win coming on good ground, a sounder surface would look a positive. Given those two factors combined later in the Spring, he is well up to winning off this mark and beyond.

Scooby

Graeme McPherson does a great job bringing horses along steadily and in Scooby he has another long term project. He is yet to win a race in eleven starts but has shown his best form in 2017 when granted a proper test of stamina. Third in a three mile hurdle at Bangor before filing the same place at Towcester last week, he is finally starting to find his groove. He is a half brother to the Oliver Sherwood trained Beforeall who is a dour stayer with a penchant for deep ground. Another year or two and it it’s likely the regional ‘Nationals’ will be on Scooby’s agenda but connections should find him a handicap hurdle or two on the way.

Victarion

Has shown minor promise in a pair of bumpers at Wincanton but a bare two miles round a sharp track looks an insufficient test of stamina even at this stage of his burgeoning career. His dam is a half sister to Frantic Tan who won over three and a half miles and to Irish Raptor who won over three and a quarter. Better ground should suit a little more in the short term with a step up in trip a must when connections send him hurdling. Likely to be given one more spin in a bumper for race experience, he will shape better once he has another summer on his back. He possibly isn’t one who will be winning in the short term but he looks a lovely prospect for the future.

Nicolosio

Time will probably show that he was dropped into the deep end on his hurdling debut at Sandown on Saturday. He looked burly in the paddock and raced far too keenly on his return from a 15 month absence to do himself justice. He was still tanking along coming to three out but having turned for home up the hill, he faded out of things. Nick Schofield wasn’t unduly harsh on him, letting him come home in his own time. He will have had a good blow for that but showed enough to think that connections will be able to find races for him over hurdles later in the season. He was a Listed winner on the flat in both France and Germany while his half brother Nexius was a multiple scorer over hurdles for Paul Nicholls. He has joined a yard that won’t garner much attention and may fly under the radar for a while making him a more backable price especially if punters take the distance beaten here at face value.

Our past Weekly Eye-catchers articles contain each week’s horses. Put these horses into your tracker and some tasty successes are coming your way! We will be back next Tuesday with more eye-catchers.