8.10pm Ffos Las Tips & Betting Preview 22/06/2017

An interesting three-mile handicap hurdle worth a decent £5523 to the winner but sadly the quicker summer going has only attracted a field of seven – read on for a full in-depth race preview horse by horse.

IN SUMMARY: Not an easy race to call with the majority either weighted beyond their abilities or woefully out of sorts. GINGILI may be the exception with the booking of Sam Twiston-Davies just about giving him the edge over Benenden and Away With The Greys who look to be serious dangers. 

1 HEIST – Irish trainer Patrick Griffin sends over the seven-year-old as he looks to follow up his course and distance win at the end of May. He has been put up three pounds for a two length victory from Still Believing but didn’t exactly impress that day and with his stable going through a quiet patch (one runner in the last two weeks), top weight could be enough to stop him here even with jockey Adam Short’s seven-pound claim.

2 MAN WITH VAN – Not likely to be improving at the age of eleven and without a win now since a novice chase at Hexham back in June 2014, a run of fourteen losses split between chases and hurdles, and with a thirty-five length ninth of fourteen over fences at Kilbeggan last time out. Another Irish raider, and also from the Patrick Griffin stable, he has won over the larger obstacles off of higher ratings but is hard to make a case for here.

3 MIGHTY LEADER – One of the in-form options with a win last time out at Stratford over even further when all out to see off Crown Hill by half a length on ground with a bit of cut in it last month. A weight rise of seven pounds seems excessive but he has won on good or faster going though a career best will be needed at the age of nine to take this. The Feargal O’Brien yard are in decent enough form this summer with two wins from eight runners in the last two weeks and a 20% strike rate, with his trainer saying after his last win that “Mighty Leader has struggled a bit with his confidence since he fell at Exeter back in November but that was better. He wants the decent ground so we will keep him going”, and he could well place at the very least tonight.

4 GINGILI – With Sean Bowen booked to ride for his father on Away With The Greys,,  trainer John Farrelly has had to replace Gingili’s usual jockey but has snapped up Sam Twiston-Davies which is interesting to read. Last time out at Worcester he stayed on strongly over slightly shorter to win by a battling half a length from Jigsaw Financial. Up five pounds for what was already a career best effort, he will need to improve again to take a hand here but seems to handle these conditions better than most of this field and at least arrives here in good form.

5 BENENDEN – Michael and Tom Scudamore team up here with this nine-year-old son of Moscow Society who last won at Southwell on soft ground in June last year. he has won a point to point on good ground but nothing this fast and fell here last time out at the seventh when making the running and as no one knows how much that took out of him, a watching brief may be the sensible option for now. The stable have only had the two (losing) runners in the last two weeks and will do well to better that this evening.

6 AWAY WITH THE GREYS – Trainer Peter Bowen has won two of the last four runnings of this race with Big Time Billy in 2013 and Tony Star last season and has decided to rely on this veteran ten-year-old this year as he looks for another winner. Last time out he finished third to Ascendant in a two and a half mile selling hurdle here when beaten less than five lengths and with all his best from on ground with plenty of cut in it, he may well find the conditions far too quick for him this evening.

7 KING MASSINI – Sent off to the point-to-point field that experiment has been pretty disastrous with a second at Howick followed by two Unseated’s, a Carried Out, and another Unseated last time out. His last run over hurdles was back in December 2014 and he is yet to win over hurdles after eight attempts and although potentially well handicapped (he has won off a mark up to seven pounds higher over fences), it looks to be asking that bit too much for him to win on this ground based on his poor recent form.