Shui Feng can go close at a price

I seldom talk about luck where betting is concerned because there is simply no point; you just have to hope that things will even themselves out over a period of time. So I shall just say that Tom Marquand will not look back on his fourth on Aldeburgh at Brighton with any fondness because he was trapped on the inner for far too long and had to ask for everything in a short burst. Aldeburgh should have been at least third at 8/1 (a remarkable price) but he will not be easy to place.

Sometimes the handicapper has a horse worked out almost to the ounce and that is probably the way of it with Robert Eddery’s DONNCHA, who has gone close on several occasions in valuable mile handicaps. He is generally on 100 or 101 and will be again in the Newbury Spring Cup on Saturday. He is an each-way proposition once again but deserves to get his head in front. I also like SHUI FENG, who did not try to get across to the far side in the Lincoln and still finished a creditable eighth. Before that he finished a good fourth in the Winter Derby over a trip slightly too far and I feel he will go well here at a big price.

Richard Fahey is always to be respected when sending runners south and his QUEEN KINDLY is actually top-rated in the Fred Darling, though not by much. She was below her best in the Cheveley Park and can underline the point here although, however she fares, I doubt she will stay the mile of the 1000 Guineas.

The ground is drying out at Ayr and I’d be thinking in terms of coins rather than notes in the Scottish Grand National, though I quite liked SELDOM INN’s second at Kelso last time. He won on good ground earlier in his career but generally races on softer these days. Sandy Thomson can saddle the winner of a top marathon one day and I shall risk a little each-way here, though it’s a fiendishly difficult race on a surface that plenty will find lively enough after a long winter.