FILTER BY

A Couple of Eye-Catchers

May 17th, 2022 | Marten's Current Racing Diary

Hi there!

I am indebted to the readers who got back to me to explain that the Tote now guarantee to pay at least the industry returned SP on win bets or, when the Tote dividend is greater than SP, the higher amount.

This is another welcome concession to the backer and it is something I should have known about. Sorry for that!

Moving on, and I’m not sure that we should allow ourselves to get too carried away with a four-year-old winning debutant, but it was hard not to be impressed with the manner in which Shining Blue won the 7f maiden at Leicester on Monday evening.

The gelded son of Exceed And Excel has evidently had a few problems, but he was steadily supported to a shade of odds-on and won this under a motionless Daniel Tudhope. The time was comparatively the best of the night despite the winner having what appeared to be loads in hand.

As for the value of the form the runner-up Dukedom, a three-year-old trained by John & Thady Gosden, was beaten two-and-a-half lengths and is rated 78, while the third Doux Esprit had shaped with promise on his previous start at Kempton.

Dukedom, now a six-race maiden, evidently has his limitations but Shining Blue looks capable of landing a decent handicap at some point before progressing to better things.

Another one to keep an eye on is Huntsman’s Moon.

Tony Carroll’s gelded three-year-old started at 100/1 and 150/1 (twice) in his three starts over six furlongs and ran today from a mark of 50 in his first handicap, stepped up to 7f, in a 0-60 Class 6 at Brighton. Drawn on the wide outside in stall 15 he was always up against it, but as I anticipated he was staying on nicely in the final quarter mile to finish fifth, four-and-three-quarter lengths behind the winner.

From a family of winners up to 1m 3f and over hurdles, this son of 12-race winner Hunter’s Light is money in the bank from his mark when he is stepped up to a mile or beyond.

I was surprised to see he did not come in for a favourable mention in the Racing Post’s analysis.

Bye for now

Marten