Venetian Lion more than justified our faith in him on Wednesday, landing a classic William Haggas touch from 10/3 into 5/4. He won easily and will get a 7-8 lb rise in the weights – he will still be rated less than 90 and will have a great chance of landing a big handicap prize next season.
His victory followed the win and similar gamble landed last week by Gaspacho also at Nottingham last week and solidified our good start to Period 1.
Only 1 runner on Thursday at the newly reopened Chelmsford.
William Haggas has a record of 3 from 8 in Autumn Nursery’s at the track and National Pride is among the market leaders around 7/2 in the Class 5 event over 7f at 17.15 on Thursday.
At first glance National Pride looks to have gone backwards after showing promise on his first two outings. There are excuses for his performances on his 3rd and 4th races but generally it is unusual for Somerville Lodge 2yo’s to improve during the 2yo season after having more than 3 outings. The question is following a 4lb drop by the handicapper to a mark of 73 is he well handicapped?
On reflection the answer is No. He is unfashionably bred and both his dam and her dam were maidens, with no sign that the AW will suit National Pride.
He is well drawn but there look to be three or four potential improvers in the line up. On the question of value had he not been trained by a top yard and shown the same form he would be a double figure price.
There are no runners on Friday but a couple of interest on Saturday.
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