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Wednesday 3 November 2010

Up a bit, down a bit

In our regular look at the ups and downs of the sprint handicapper we start the week by looking at Class 4 Handicap run over 6f at Woverhampton on the 29th October. The winner Mister Laurel was running on the AW for the first time and he won with something in hand and as a result he has gone up 5lb to a mark of 82, which he should be able to win off. The second Pavershoooz holds up the form as he is a decent sort on his day on this surface and the 3rd Avertor was an eyecatcher, he stayed on very well down the outside having had to make his run around the field and would have been 2nd in another stride, he remains on 81 and looks capable of winning in due course if kept to this distance or 7f. Having only had 9 starts he is open to improvement ann is one for the "Horses to watch out for" list.

Dundalk next for the 6f Handicap on 29th October and this was dominated by the 2 English raiders Take Ten and Noverre to Go. The latter has shown good form on turf during the year and he finished 2nd on the far side in the Wokingham off 98 (7th overall) and he was 2nd on the far side again in the Stewards Cup also off 98 (5th overall), he was running off 97 here. He struggled though to keep tabs on Mark Johnston's Take Ten who adopted the usual front running role from stall 1 for his stable. He was always in command and was value for more than he won by here and as a result our handicapper has assessed the race and stuck him up 10lb to a mark of 93, which is about what he was at the begining of the season. If he is kept to this surface then you couldnt rule out further improvement, he had only run once on the AW before when he was 5th behind Mac's Power who went on to destroy the field in his next race and he is entered again at the weekend. Mark Johnston who probably would be honest and say he has no aspirations to be a sprint trainer could have an improver in Take Ten on this surface.

So that's it for this week, Piscean's race on the Sunday will feature next week as it hasnt been assessed by the handicapper yet.