Sunday, January 22, 2012

Talking Horses | Greg Wood

Today's best bets and the latest news from the tracks in our daily horse racing blog

Ruby Walsh wins first three at Fairyhouse

Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh are in excellent form at Fairyhouse, winning the first three races, and Blazing Tempo is down to around 14-1 for the Ryanair Chase at the Festival in March after beating Noble Prince, the odds-on favourite, in the Grade Two Normans Grove Chase.

There was only three-quarters of a length in it, but Blazing Tempo was a worthy winner, Blazing Tempo, an eight-year-old mare, has not had much of a break since winning the Galway Plate in late July, but shows no signs of flagging and is a versatile performer in terms of trip too.

Her wins this season range from three miles to Sunday's two miles and a furlong, and the Queen Mother Champion Chase is an alternative target at the Festival meeting.

Racing is under way in Britain and Ireland, but the most attractive bets on Sunday are later on at Kempton, where Torres Del Paine (nap 4.55) and Nazreef (4.25) both have plenty to recommend them.

Mikael D'Haguenet is Cheltenham bound

The success of Blazing Tempo came at the end of an excellent weekend for Rich Ricci, her owner, as his former Festival winner Mikael D'Haguenet was also back in the winner's enclosure at Naas on Saturday.

Ricci has been discussing plans for Mikael D'Haguenet on At The Races. "He looked really sharp and jumped really quickly," he said. "You could see Paul [Townend] having to take a good hold of him. He was almost cocky, swaggering again yesterday.

"The question is what to do with him. He'll go to Cheltenham for the World Hurdle or the Champion Hurdle, so he'll take on Big Buck's or Hurricane Fly. We'll figure it out."


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jan/22/horse-racing-best-bets

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