Alan Dudman was in sparkling form yesterday with two winners in a 19/120.00 double and heads to Newbury and Bath for Friday...
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Alan landed 19/1 Newmarket double on Thursday
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Fresh off a good mark for Newbury outing
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Electric Storm up in class for Bath feature
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Fresh has been something of a nemesis or Achilles' heel horse in the past of mine, as I have put him up a couple of times in the column and he's often met trouble.
Royal Ascot springs to mind last year when finishing fifth (two lengths) in the Wokingham off a mark of 101. He finished strongly having ran into horses several times, but on that run he's tremendously well treated off 93 today.
Indeed, this is the lowest mark he's been on since 2021, and while that could coincide with a horse who just cannot win anymore, he ran well at York and the Curragh in big handicaps and sizeable fields last season beaten a combined total of 6L. So he is by no means a lost cause.
I like the angle here of him already having a run on the All-Weather in April so he won't be lacking for fitness, and if we can get away with good to soft ground, those would be what surfer's call "golden conditions".
Hopefully he won't meet trouble again with Newbury's wide open expanses and the fact he stays 7f and drops to 6f could give him the ideal opportunity for a tow into the race. Heart ruling head maybe, but he's got a massive chance from a handicapping point of view in an easier race than usual.
Very rarely would I be interested in betting at Bath - not unless a Vhujon relation popped up, but the feature Lansdown Stakes (a Listed race for fillies and mares) offers up a price on Electric Storm.
I wasn't alone when the market went up on the Sportsbook on Thursday evening as the 11/112.00 had gone and she was cut into 11/26.50.
She won on debut at Kempton over 7f last summer and overcame greenness to battle away and show a good attitude and followed up the success with another Kempton win over 6f. She beat Clive Cox's Vultar then, and that horse boosted the form twice and hit 91 on official ratings.
The James Tate filly posted an 11.13 second sectional in the closing stages on that final run, which was a lot quicker than her best sectional debut (admittedly the track rode slower).
She has a super pedigree with Quiff and Wince as relations, and good ground should serve her well as a Night Of Thunder, although the sire seems equally effective on numbers in terms of strike-rates and actually has a better strike-rate with placed runners on ground with soft in the description.
Tate has a 41% placed record at Bath and Electric Storm certainly comes into an each-way bet.