National Trials
Racing looks set for a fairly full weekend which makes a nice change for those spread racing punters who have had to put up with the all-weather (if you can call it that) over the past few weeks. Both Ascot and Haydock hold strong cards and we'll start by looking at Saturday's highlight at Haydock, the Blue Square Gold Cup. This is traditionally a strong Grand National trial which often turns into a war of attrition due to very testing conditions. These are the types of races winning distance buyers on the spreads dream of, as the likely heavy ground often plays into the hands of only a handful of horses. However, spread punters shouldn't necessarily steam into buy distances purely on the back off this race. OK, so five of the last nine runnings have been won by a winning distance of at least 13 lengths, but the other four have all been settled by 1&1/2 lengths or shorter, including the last two renewals. This race seems to go one way or the other and spread punters should carefully weigh up the form to see if there is a �plot' horse in there.
The profile of winners over the past nine years has been quite varied as well, which gives punters a number of options when playing on the Sporting Index race win index. Horses aged between 7-11 years old have all been successful since 1999, but nine-year-olds just have the edge. Any spread punter worth his salt will be looking closely at well-handicapped horses, but Mike De Beauchene followed up his Welsh National win here last year under top weight of 11st12lbs, the second top weight to win the race in the past nine years, but only the third to carry more than 11st. In fact, three of the last nine victors have carried the minimum 10st. Some spread bettors are more inclined to buy than others and SP buyers in this meeting won't be disheartened by the record of this race. Only one favourite has won since 1999 and prior to Miko De Beauchene last year, all of the past five winners had returned a double figure price.
Albertas Run is a live contender for this year's Gold Cup and he was the first horse in donkey's years to pull off the Reynoldstown / Royal & SunAlliance double last season. The racing spread bettors won't need too long to study the form in tomorrow's Reynoldstown at Ascot as only four horses will line up at the start. This is a better race for the SP spread sellers though, as five of the last 10 favourites have won and only two winners in the past decade have started bigger than 3/1 - Albertas was one of them at 9/2 last year. In such a small field, the spread distance buyers from Haydock will also be looking at the Berkshire venue and they will be pleased to learn that the only two times in the past eight years when fewer than five horses have turned up, the winning margins have been a distance and 13 lengths - spread sellers beware.
Related links:
