Double Dutch, 7th October 2014

Double Dutch

Double Dutch, 7th October 2014

What started out as a very promising afternoon was once again turned into one of head-shaking frustration as yet again we cam away empty-handed from our doubles, having backed just the one winner.

Things went exactly to plan at Windsor, where Dalgig led Henry The Aviator home in a well strung out field to land a near 13/2 exacta for those doing the exotics and after a slight drift in the market, gave us a nice 2/1 winner for the first half of the double.

So all eyes and hopes were on Pontefract’s race 50 minutes later, where Mr McLaren led until the final furlong and yet still found himself finishing 3rd of the 6 runners and the best part of six lengths adrift, which was disappointing, but nowhere near as disappointing as the run from Pigeon Pie, who finished a very remote last of the 6.

Pigeon Pie was beaten by 34 lengths overall and was 25 lengths away from the nearest horse to him, not good at all.

Monday’s results were as follows:

Dalgig: won at 2/1 (adv 15/8)
Henry The Aviator: 2nd at 5/2 (adv 3/1)
The Exacta paid out at 6.4/1 here.
——————————————
Mr McLaren: u/p at 2/1 (adv 3/1)
Pigeon Pie: u/p at 5/1 (adv 11/4)

Results to date:
368 winning selections from 1296 = 28.40%
119 winning bets in 337 days = 35.31%

Stakes: 673.50pts
Returns: 729.31pts

P/L : +55.81pts (+8.29% ROI)

REMINDER: THERE IS NO DOUBLE DUTCH ON SUNDAYS

Looking for a change in fortunes on Tuesday with these…

1.50 Brighton:

Koharu won this race last year and also has another course and distance victory to her name, she’s actually 112 over C&D and 315142 at the track in general. She’s very happy with the undulating nature of the course, which isn’t always the case for runners without experience of a previous run here. She’s drawn right out in stall 14, but both her C&D wins came from wide draws and she has also won here on good to soft ground.

She has been running well of late, finishing 5th of 12 at Epsom last time out, but only beaten by a length in a tight finish. She was a head and a neck behind 3rd-placed Pharoh Jake in that race and the latter was a winner at Windsor yesterday. This is an easier task today, dropping in class and Koharu looks good for the win at 5/2 BOG.

Saskias Dream is another former course and distance winner and although she hasn’t won since that CD win here 13 months ago has been showing significant signs of a return to form helped by a dropping handicap mark.

She’s had a bit of a rest of late and is expected to go well fresh today and will be aided by the booking of Richard Hughes again. he has only partnered her in 4 of her previous 43 starts, but they have a record of 3213 together, so he clearly gets a fine tune out of her.

A mark of 59 for a horse that should be fresh to go at a venue where she has one win and one runner-up finish from two races makes Saskias Dream a real contender at 3/1 BOG today.

*

4.00 Catterick:

Eastern Magic was only touched off by a nose at Bath last time out when failing to hold on to a lead in similarly good to soft conditions as today. He’s actually up a pound for that run, but a drop back in trip to 2 miles is sure to help see this one out. He is ridden by 5lb claimer Jack Duern again and these two seem to have struck up a good understanding, with 2 wins and 2 places from 8 runs at 1m6.5f and beyond and we know from the horse’s prior 2m1f win at Bath that he gets the trip. Eastern Magic is currently very fairly priced at 3/1 BOG…

…as is the big danger, Philosofy, a lightly raced 4yr old making her handicap debut. She will get the trip, despite this being a half-mile step up in trip from her recent efforts over 1m4f, as she actually started her racing career by running two bumpers here at Catterick back in January. She was third on debut behind Zeroeshadesofgrey who won again next time out, as did Philosofy. Those two runs were on soft and then heavy ground so any additional rain will help her cause here.

Since those two bumpers, she has contested three maidens to get her handicap mark, which looks pretty lenient at 50. Those three runs were at Class 5 level over 1m4f and she was outpaced and well beaten. The longer trip up to one she is proven at and a drop down to Class 6, where she’s 1 from 1 will make Philosofy a real contender today at 100/30 BOG.

4 x 0.5pt doubles as follows:

Koharu / Philosofy @ 14.17/1 (5/2 & 10/3 : Bet365)
Koharu / Eastern Magic @ 13/1 (5/2 & 3/1 : generally)
Saskias Dream / Philosofy @ 16.33/1 (3/1 & 10/3 : BetVictor & Paddy Power)
Saskias Dream / Eastern Magic @ 15/1 (3/1 & 3/1 : generally)