Lucinda Russell is based up in Scotland, which means that Shropshire is quite a distance away. It could therefore be significant that she sends just one runner all the way down to Ludlow on Wednesday. Yet to train a winner from her nine runners at the track so far, she’ll be looking to get off the mark here.
The cost of simply getting a horse to the track these days is very high and the fuel costs alone will be significant. It’s a 640-mile round trip from her yard to Ludlow and connections will be seeking some compensation. You can check out our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.
Raise Your Glass is a once-raced three-year-old who made her debut in a bumper at Doncaster earlier this month. It’s fair to say that she wouldn’t have made it in to anyone’s notebooks, as she was never really in the race at any point. Her jockey didn’t give her a hard time however and she would have learnt plenty from the experience.
This will be her hurdles debut and it would be fair to expect significant improvement in this sphere. Russell’s charge is related to several hurdle and chase winners and her dam won over both. Up against fellow National Hunt types, this sort of test will be right up her street and Alan Doyle takes 5lb off.
There are plenty of interesting candidates in this race, including Dameofthecotswolds and Virginia Lodge who have won a bumper and a hurdle respectively. Significant improvement will obviously be required but it would be dangerous to rule Raise Your Glass out here.
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