Trainer Form: Tom Dascombe and Venetia Williams

Trainer Form / Timeform / 17 December 2008 / Leave a Comment

Timeform run the rule over two trainers who will be hoping their charges come in this week.

Having enjoyed a highly successful turf season, Tom Dascombe has also made a fine start to the all-weather campaign, with the latest fortnight proving to be particularly fruitful. From sixteen runners in that time, Dascombe has had an impressive seven winners which includes a hat-trick for both him and stable jockey Richard Kingscote at Lingfield on the seventh of this month.

Punters have clearly been quick to notice Dascombe's purple patch however, with Saucy returning the biggest starting price of the septet at 9/2. Through the all-weather season as a whole so far, the yard has recorded an eye-catching 30% strike rate, a figure unmatched by any other trainer with five winners or more. He also lies second in the trainers' table in terms of number of winners, his ten bettered only by Mark Johnston on eleven.

As is the case on the turf, the events in which runners from Dascombe's Lambourn base are most successful are handicaps, with a level-stakes profit of more than £12 from just sixteen runners this winter so far. Two of the yard's recent winners- The Game and Noverre To Go- are both entered at Great Leighs' evening fixture on Thursday, both looking to have sound claims on the improved form shown for their recent wins.

Although having struggled in the early part of 2008/9, horses sent out by Venetia Williams have been in very good form of late, the Herefordshire handler having saddled seven winners in the last two weeks. Perhaps even more remarkable, three-quarters of her runners have made the frame in that time. The most high-profile of Williams' recent winners is Mon Mome, who won a listed handicap chase at Cheltenham on Friday, the eight-year-old gelding putting up a lifetime-best performance when beating Star de Mohaison by half a length, with the pair nineteen lengths clear of Possol.

Mon Mome was second to Halcon Genelardais in the 2006 Welsh National, and that is his likely next target. He was one of three winners that Williams supplied to exciting conditional Aidan Coleman, who has a better recent strike rate than Sam Thomas, with whom he shares the majority of rides from Williams' stable. Historically, the track to most fear Venetia Williams contenders at is Ludlow, and she saddles Lorient Express at this Thursday's meeting at the Shropshire track, whilst Alexanderthegreat- entered at Ludlow at the five-day stage- goes to Exeter on the same afternoon.

The coldest trainer of the moment remains Seamus Mullins, whose losing run now totals ninety-one runners and stretches back to July 14th when Let's Get Busy scored at Newton Abbot. And Your Point Is and Mistified both run in Exeter's 3.50 tomorrow; the former is ridden by Mr J Derham, whose last win was also provided by Let's Get Busy in July.