Let's face it, the last thing you want in the build-up to Cheltenham is some Flat racing advocate bothering you with an article about all-weather racing. I'll confess to having put the sandy stuff on the back burner in recent weeks as Festival fever sweeps through not only the nation but the Timeform office, and I've been busying myself with races such as the JLT Handicap Chase and the Champion Hurdle rather than the 20:40 at Wolverhampton on a Thursday evening.
On that basis I promise to keep this short and sweet; the trusty spreadsheet has been full updated to take into account every runner we've had since we last convened, but there are a couple of performances worth singling out. Jack My Boy's success, at a Betfair SP of 9.2, was a definite highlight and he seems sure to continue his rich vein of form but the effort of Black Cadillac, who finished ninth, is well worth bearing in mind when he next takes to the track. The five-year-old had won with something in hand on his previous outing but blew his chances with a particularly slow start, not something which he customarily does, so it is easy to put a line through that and he could make plenty of appeal as a punting proposition when he is next engaged.
Haywain is yet to win a race but pulled his chances away at Kempton last week on his first crack at sprinting; he is worth sticking with at the trip, for all that he needs to settle better if he is to see out his races. Haadeeth ran one of his better races, having been well-backed, when second to Valdaw the other night and he remains well-treated with a view to him taking up his entry at Wolverhampton next Tuesday and Fire In Babylon is worth another chance, mainly because he looks to be on a handy mark, despite him failing to finish closer than sixth in a race that was run to suit at Kempton last time.
Briefly looking forward, we appear to have an excellent chance of hitting the mark with Saoi in the 19:10 at Wolverhampton tonight, despite a number of his rivals making some sort of appeal. Harrison George is in action at the same venue tomorrow and he makes plenty of appeal with the return to six furlongs sure to be in his favour, although he does look to have potential polytrack beast Intransigent to beat.
Sans Loi and Nant Saeson could both be in action during the early stages of next week but, at this stage, it's difficult to establish the final makeup of the fields.
