2.20pm Wincanton Tips & Betting Preview 09/01/2016

2.20pm Wincanton Saturday 9th January

Race Details

Race Time: 2.20pm Meeting: Wincanton Day: Saturday 9th January 2015 Full Race Name: Bathwick Tyres Poole Handicap Hurdle Class Three

Betting Preview

A highly competitive handicap that has a weight range of twenty-nine pounds from top to bottom, though on the predicted heavy going over this distance weights may well come in to it as they plod up the home straight. Venetia Williams is responsible for top weight Yala Enki who may not be as harshly treated as it appears at first glance, and may have more room for improvement than most declared here. Bought by current connections for 110,000 Euros at the November Sales in 2014, the son of Nickname had eight races over fences and just the three over hurdles in his native France, followed by three more over here with varying degrees of success. He is rated 130 here for this contest but was a head second to Doctor Phoenix on his British debut at Uttoxeter over two and a half miles (which we would rate at about the 126 mark, followed by a sixteen length win from Duke Des Champs at Exeter over this trip (maybe worth 135 or so), but was then well beaten over close to three miles (a trip too far?) which is why he is off 130 today, at a guess.  We think that he could actually be well in here when you consider Doctor Phoenix is now rated 140 and we may well plump for him as an each way option once the prices are out, of course.

For his age the eleven-year-old Pilgreen is remarkably lightly raced and connections must have some patience to pay the training fees for this long with so little reward. Just the six races over more than five years have reaped a total of  £8429 in returns after two wins two seconds and a third, which in normal circumstances would be an impressive return, but we are wary to balance the room for further improvement that he may well have with his veteran status and wonder just how much he has left to offer – and why his rating is still as high as 110 after close to two years off the track.

Looking for a bit of a dark horse but one with more recent form, and Philip Hobbs may have yet another decent horse on his hands in the shape of Tapaculo who is only a baby at the age of five, but has already won two of his three starts, and two out of two over obstacles. Whether a novice should be mixing it with these more experienced rivals is a different question, but the son of Kayf Tara absolutely hacked up on similar going at Chepstow last time out when beating Deputy Commander by twenty-three lengths, and there is every chance he could be a good deal better than your average handicapper on what we have seen so far.

Meanwhile, jockey Liam Treadwell has taken a while to get recognised as the talent he is, but recent years have seen him much more in the limelight and he has been booked nice and early to ride the James Evans trained Amiral Collonges, another of the last time out winners. It will come as no surprise when I tell you that the six year old is yet another Gallic import with just the two British races to his name, the last one a wide margin win over close to three miles at Ascot which has seen him go up ten pounds. This trip on heavy going may feel more like three miles by the end of the race so his added stamina may yet prove to be a bonus, and those looking for a place option could do a lot worse than this chestnut gelding.

To end with (for now), we were pleased to see Mark Pitman re-join the training ranks, and he has an each way chance today with the consistent Captainofindustry who used to be trained by Jimmy Frost. With precious little sign of any ability last season, he was sent off at 11/1 on his seasonal return at Ffos Las but ran well to finish second to Wild rover and perhaps ran an even better race when fourth to Monbeg Gold at Exeter over two miles seven next time out.  A novice handicap win over three miles at Taunton off a mark of 106 next time out saw him put up to 112 last time out when he was a head second to Pobbles Bay back at Ffos Las when mugged on the line and he clearly is a massively improved animal this season, but he has been put up another six pounds for that and may well struggle under his new weight.