Juliette's weekly frolic
After nonchalantly disposing of the nippy Tingle Creek and his fellow American expatriate, Inkslinger, over two miles a couple of weeks ago, the so far invincable Pendil reverts to three miles this Saturday in the 'Yellow Pages' at Kempton Park. If he picks up this one, too, he'll become an even warmer favourite for the Gold Cup — and probably my favourite, too, now that Royal Toss (of whom I had cherished secret hopes) will not be in the field. Even in a handicap, Pendil is likely to start at his usual prohibitive odds, so for me the 'Yellow Pages' will not be a betting race. With the possibility of only three other runners, my chief interest — and probably yours — will be in looking for any further indication of the likelihood of Pendil's stamina lasting out that extra, testing, uphill quarter-mile to the Cheltenham winning post in the 'championship.'
An enormous number of entries are still standing in the 'Yellow Pages' Hurdle at the time of writing, but one of these first season hurdlers in which I shall want to have a modest interest — either here, or in whichever event is chosen for his re-appearance — is Parcener. Tackling timber for the first time at Newbury, the fouryear-old was backed from 12s to 5s and, although finishing only sixth, looked as if all that was lacking was race experience. The bookmaker-sponsors put up more stake-money this weekend. At Stratford, we have the Ladbroke Hurdle (£1,300 added) and at Teesside the Joe Coral Hurdle £2,000 added). My fancy for the former is Spy Net, although North Pole is an obvious danger if it 'comes up mud.' In the 'Joe Coral ', Reignon and Tarmarkadam (first. and fast-finishing second at Catterick) will not lack supporters, but this one looks wide open and my fallible eye falls on another of the 'Schweppes ' field, Happy Councillor.
Assets: £91.08 (Five to follow assets, £12.52). Outlay: £2 eachway Parcener, £2 win Spy Net and Happy Councillor, £1 eachway treble the same three.
Previous page
