Double Dutch, 9th December 2013
Double Dutch
Double Dutch, 9th December 2013
Well, what a difference a weekend can and did make. DD was certainly on the ropes and enduring a difficult spell on the cold list, before Matt stepped in to deputise for me on Saturday and landed a nice 20.6/1 double to get us back on track.
Naturally I felt under a little bit of pressure not to let the team down, but thankfully results went my way with winners at 5/1 and 6/1 combining for a 41/1 BOG double which puts a whole new complexion on things.
Yesterday’s results were as follows:
The Game Changer: won at 5/1 (SP 4/1)
Ange Balafre: 4th at 7/2
———————————
The Job Is Right: won at 6/1
Captain Conan: 3rd at 15/8
Results to date:
78 winning selections from 280 = 27.86%
24 winning doubles in 76 days = 31.58%
Stakes: 150.00pts
Returns: 167.28pts
P/L : +17.28pts (+11.52% ROI)
A bumper and a Class 4 sand handicap await us today:
Katachenko represents the in-form Donald McCain yard and this former Irish point winner comes here on the back of a respectable 4th place in a Limerick bumper. He makes his first start for the McCain team today and his £35,000 price tag will have to start being repaid soon and his current price of 7/2 might just chip a chunk off it.
The real and obvious danger is the more likely winner of the two: the 6/4 favourite It’s High Time. This one is primed to achieve his first win after back to back (albeit 7 months apart) runner-up positions. He was beaten by a head at Gowran Park back in April when carrying 12 stone and was collared on the line. The more recent effort was a course and distance affair where he stayed on well to finish within half a length of another Donald McCain which was winning on debut!
The bookies and the tipsters say this is a two-horse race and I’m inclined to agree with the general consensus that whilst the likes of Doldrums and Modernism will dominate this race, there’s not going to be that much between them.
Doldrums is the slight favourite at 2/1 and looks pretty well treated off an opening mark of 76, despite beating a 78-rated horse when winning on this track on her racing debut just over three weeks ago. She’s a half-sister to a grade 1 winner and full sister to Alluring Squall (3 wins and 4 places from 10 in the USA) and cost her connections 300,000 US Dollars, so they’ll be expecting bigger and better things of her than a Class 4 handicap at Wolverhampton, but we’ve all got to start somewhere.
Modernism comes here off the back of a win over 10f at Lingfield and he’s far more exposed than the favourite after 18 races in total. He’s a former course and distance winner and did well to hold on last time out from a poor draw. He has been raised 3lbs to a mark of 78 for that win, which might cause him issues if he’s not on his A-game today, but we are reminded that he ran really well to finish 4th in a Class 2 handicap at Ascot off 84 last year, so there’s still some scope for him here at a best price of 9/4.
4 x 0.5pt BOG doubles as follows:
It’s High Time / Doldrums @ 6.5/1 with BetVictor & Stan James (6/4 & 2/1)
It’s High Time / Modernism @ 6.8125/1 with BetVictor (6/4 & 85/40)
Katachenko / Doldrums @ 12.5/1 generally (7/2 & 2/1)
Katachenko / Modernism @ 13.625/1 with SkyBet and PP (7/2 & 9/4)
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