Rich Ricci’s Insights

It was fascinating hearing Rich Ricci talking about his horses and other aspects of his life with Luke Harvey and Jason Weaver on ATR races last night.

What did become clear is that he thinks Min is, in his words, the “wrong price” and he expects the horse to drift in the market near the day. Ladbrokes don’t want to know the horse at 5/4, but 7/4 is available elsewhere and on Betfair he is bigger at 3.15. I have heard from one source that the horse has a physical issue, which may be a problem if he has to come off the bridle.

Rich Ricci’s banker of the meeting is Limini, short enough at 1.84 on Betfair and a top price of 10/11 with the bookmakers. It is unusual to find a horse shorter on Betfair than with the bookmakers, but the mare could be most interesting on the Flat this summer. The owner says she is well treated from a mark of 89. My impression of the mare is that she may need to improve her jumping, but there is no doubt she has a big engine.

It seems that no decision about the target for Annie Power will be made until next Wednesday or Thursday. Rich Ricci was very guarded when asked, stating that from an emotional point of view they want the mare to win another Grade 1 race and that is more likely in the Mares’ Hurdle than the Champion. He added that if declaration time were “tomorrow”, then she would be supplemented for the Champion Hurdle.

The owner was also very interesting when talking about Vautour, stating that in his work last season he was “spectacular” but he is not working as well at the moment. I see that he is a little weak on Betfair for the Gold Cup market, trading at 6.8 as opposed to a top 9/2 with the bookmakers.

Ricci added that he felt Long Dog (12/1), for whom the Neptune is favoured, and Thomas Hobson (16/1), who is being aimed at the Albert Bartlett, look overpriced.

I will be back with more news for you on Sunday.

Bye for now

Marten