Tingle Creek Preview: Prefixing a bigger scourge than race fixing

Jamie Lynch / Jamie Lynch / 03 December 2011 / Leave a Comment

Wishfull Thinking tops the index in the Owner Overviewer

"Wishfull Thinking hasn't been let loose over two miles to make the most of his bold jumping, enthusiasm, flamboyance and high cruising speed, but he will be at Sandown, and I really like the thought of that."

Timeform Chief Correspondent, Jamie Lynch, warns of pre-conceptions over names, but says that owner themes are a different matter: or is it just Wishfull Thinking?

The problem with Betfair is that I'm no longer spending enough time in the bookies. I wandered in one dinnertime last week, into a gaggle of men (and the obligatory dog) that were unfamiliar in face but reassuringly familiar in so many other ways, each made up roughly of two-fifths hope, two-fifths denim and one-fifth what can only be described as Betting Shop Tourette's. I know whereof I speak, believe me.

I wasn't in there long when a man - let's just call him Kenny - turned around to me and said: 'Henderson had seven yesterday. I did all of them. I always do Henderson. Henderson over jumps, and Ballymacs on the dogs.' I looked upon him in the way that Adrian Chiles sometimes looks at Christine Bleakley when Daybreak tries to do politics, and I thought no more of it.

I say I thought no more of it, but I did, and the uncomfortable truth is that I'm no wiser nor better than Kenny. Despite the long-term Timeform tutelage in sophisticated and disciplined form-based punting, I'm still a sucker for a wholesale generalisations, starting with names, or the prefix to be more precise.

Exhibit A: Bollin. Not quite in the same league as Harlestone, but everybody knows that all Bollins need a very long trip and very soft ground. Only they don't, as proven over the years by, amongst others, Edward, Franny and Joanne, to my cost. I've also painfully discovered that not all Inglebys love the fibresand, not all Stoneacres are useless, not all Rightcars are useless and not all Broughtons are lined up for handicaps, while one or two Burjs have been known to fulfil their potential.

That's the Flat, though, and in fairness to the National Hunt prefixes they tend to prove rather more steadfast and reliable. Here's my little jumps ditty to remind me of what names do what:

Kautos are classy and Brooklyn equals free-goer
Lambrinis are slow yet Woodlands are slower,
Solways in Scotland and Cresswells in Wales
Bathwicks are triers but Woolfalls flash tails,
Truckers are travellers and Minellas good jumpers
See Mores in points and Nodforms in bumpers,
Back Stagecoach in small fields and Carricks when wet
And Basfords if it looks like they're having a bet.

However, there is one glaring omission, and it's perhaps the most weighty prefix around right now: Sizing.

I'm not sure what Sizing is a byword for, but in a Timeform straw poll the most common suggestion was 'old-fashioned chaser'. Personally, I can't have that term; it's pretty meaningless when you think about it, just like 'old-fashioned gamble'. There's no timescale here. Is it not just a fancy or pretentious way of saying big? If an old-fashioned chaser landed an old-fashioned gamble then we'd have to call in Ertha Kitt.

The most old fashioned of all the Sizings is coming over for the most old-fashioned race of the weekend, the Grade 1 Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown. Sizing Europe, like most of the Sizings, is trained in Ireland, but we're well aware of his old-fashioned talent over here in Britain where he's won four of his five starts, including at the last two Cheltenham Festivals.

Sizing Strike Rate would be an apt name for him, though Sizing Robust wouldn't be, as he has averaged only four races per season in his career. It's different this time around, however, and Sandown will be his third start in as many months, which makes you think a bit. Add to that a very hard race when out on his feet at the end of three miles at Down Royal four weeks ago, and it's enough to put me off him as favourite here. A fragile theory, but perhaps a fragile horse.

Tataniano's injury is a shame, but it's typical of Paul Nicholls that he has another old-fashioned gun to fire in the shape of Kauto Stone, and we know from the prefix postulater that Kauto is a maxim for classy. He duly looked classy on his first start for Nicholls at the aforementioned Down Royal meeting last month, but looking classy against a handful of second-tier Irish chasers over two-and-half miles is a world away from proving classy against this different lot at a different trip. An undeveloped theory, but perhaps an undeveloped horse.

There aren't enough Wishful(l)s around for the prefix postulater to kick in regards Wishfull Thinking, but that's okay because we do have the owner overviewer as back-up, and Diana Whateley is one of the most definitive on that particular index. Think dark and light blue colours, think Philip Hobbs, think bold-jumping, enthusiastic, flamboyant horses that are high on class and cruising speed. Like Menorah, Snap Tie and Captain Chris, Wishfull Thinking fits that bill exactly. Unlike Menorah, Snap Tie and Captain Chris, Wishfull Thinking hasn't been let loose over two miles to make the most of his bold jumping, enthusiasm, flamboyance and high cruising speed, but he will be at Sandown, and I really like the thought of that.

Wishfull Thinking was Timeform's leading novice chaser of last season, an accolade achieved over longer trips, but I've got a suspicion that he'll make a crack two-miler, and I've got a suspicion that he'll be hard to catch in the Tingle Creek, in which he'll roll along in front, jumping from fence to fence (a cliche right up there with old-fashioned chaser in my book), all the while cranking up the pressure and exposing any potential fragility in Sizing Europe and any potential immaturity in Kauto Stone.

In Sizing and Kauto, Wishfull Thinking has some big names to overcome, but names can be misleading, as I've tried to point out, and it's time for me to stop making such simplistic and misguided assumptions about horses.

By the way, Cresswell Crusader runs in the 14:40 at Chepstow. I'm off to tell Kenny.
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