Rehearsal Chase Tips: Hobson's Charge Has Scope For More
A competitive three mile chase wraps up Newcastle's Saturday card, the Rehearsal Chase. There are plenty in here with a shot, but Billy Grimshaw has taken a fancy to one at a decent each-way price who looks to have been primed for the big day...
#AD 18+ New UK customers. Bet £10 on accas with 4+ legs, min odds 3/1 (4.0). Get 4x £5 Free Bets and 50 Free Spins, valid for 7 days on selected bets and games only. T&Cs apply. GambleAware.org
Looking at this race for the first time, what struck me was the amount of horses who one could easily make a case for toward the head of the market, yet also dismiss quite easily. Donny Boy for example would be of interest were this a right handed track, however with how violently he lugged right at every fence last time out he's not one on my radar. Perhaps those issues were simply due to freshness as it was his first run back off a break, but at the prices I can leave him alone.
The Changing Man is being well backed as I type, as he was for the Badger Beers when pulling up as favourite, and it is interesting he is in here on his second run back from a wind op. On is best form he would have to be under consideration but my concern is he is as liable to put it all in over fences as he is to throw in a stinker, so with quotes of 4/1 and shorter flying around he's another I was more than happy to leave.
Bowtogreatness made most appeal of the market leaders on the back of finally shedding his maiden tag over fences last time out at Newbury for Ben Pauling. I liked the switch in tactics to front running and it seemed the horse did too, and if that day I'd have been offered 5/1 and bigger about him next time out off just four pounds higher I'd have been very tempted indeed. He does, however, have plenty more pace rivals to contend with in here and he strikes me as the type who could sulk if not getting his own way out in front, if they are the tactics Kielan Woods employs.
#AD 18+ New UK customers. Bet £10 on accas with 4+ legs, min odds 3/1 (4.0). Get 4x £5 Free Bets and 50 Free Spins, valid for 7 days on selected bets and games only. T&Cs apply. GambleAware.org
That's the top of the market and those I don't fancy dealt with then, now onto the fun stuff. Where is the cash going? It's being placed each-way on Richard Hobson's SOME SCOPE, who like the majority of the field has things to recommend him and things to dissuade you from touching him with a bargepole. He was last seen pulling up behind the now favourite for Saturday's feature at Newbury Senior Chief at Cheltenham, with a poor start meaning he was always chasing the pack and in the end some lacklustre jumping putting paid to his chances entirely.
He wasn't given a hard time by his rider and has since had wind surgery, but even if he hadn't been for the operation I'd still be willing to forgive him that first run back from a break. Last season his first outing was merely a pipe opener when he finished a tame fifth before bouncing right back to form to win at Catterick over a similar distance. That was a much lowlier affair than today's, but he backed it up with another win next time out at Doncaster when insanely well backed to win the SBK Handicap Chase at an SP of 13/8.
Horses that are not well regarded do not go off that short for a handicap chase as competitive as that, and he lost absolutely nothing next time up at the same venue when one of only two finishes in a soft ground Grimthorpe. That was a real gruelling test and I actually think what he did just a month and a half later at Cheltenham was remarkable to finish fourth in a handicap. Just ahead of him that day was Stumptown, who has won two races since, and I think it's pretty smart form. I'm happy to forgive his run this season and feel confident Richard Hobson will have him cherry ripe for this big day. Good ground is a positive too, despite the fact he acts on soft.
I imagine he'll be in the last few runners, as he is a hold up horse, however there are plenty of others in this race who he can congregate with including the favourite and second favourite, so at 16/1 or bigger he rates a brilliant each-way punt to hopefully end Saturday in style.