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Training duo 17% strike-rate at Ffos Las
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Chase debutant with form at track
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Alan Dudman has a Sportsbook double on Sunday
Three miles in the gloom and mud at Ffos Las might not be everyone's idea of fun, but Ballydisco is certainly one who won't mind the conditions and has the look of a stayer with potential.
He'll have to improve again from a mark of 121 and this isn't a bad race for the grade, but I liked the way he battled and stuck his head down to win over CD (dead heat) last spring - thus giving Philip Hobbs and Johnson White their first winner together as a partnership.
He was last seen in April winning under Ben Sutton (who keeps the ride today with his claim), and while the form rated around the second that day wasn't particularly strong, since he's been stepped up to 3m he has improved.
White and Hobbs have a 17% strike-rate at Ffos Las too.
I'm looking forward to seeing Ben Clarke's Good Friday Fairy run over fences for the first time on Sunday and the trainer has wasted little time in sending him chasing.
With only four runs over hurdles, he landed one in easy fashion at Chepstow and ran quite well in a handicap for the first time at Ffos Las.
He has made the running, which tends to be his way, but there was a suspicion he went off too hard last time as he wobbled around a bit when he hit three out. But there was a big enough gap to the third to suggest it was a sound run.
Less forceful tactics, or at least a tactic that means he doesn't run like the wind in the early stages will be more beneficial and as he acts in the ground, and he looks an interesting recruit at this low level to the chasing sphere.
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