King Al lands a gamble at Ludlow, and now we look to I’m A Lumberjack following up at Doncaster

February 4

It did not take long for Barbury to get on the February score-sheet, with King Al winning the Juvenile Hurdle at Ludlow today, hot on the heels of a creditable third from Neon Dream at Kempton on Sunday, while on the Flat One Cool Dreamer was only nailed in the last stride at Wolverhampton yesterday.

King Al, twice a winner on the level for the Apple Tree Stud, landed a gamble, having been backed from 9-2 to 2-1 favourite. He was making it third time lucky over jumps, having chased home a smart youngster in Precious Man at Kempton last month.

Tom Bellamy rode a smashing race from the front on King Al who was very slick over his hurdles, and, with our stable jockey upping the pace going into the home turn, King Al was always doing just enough up the straight, holding on by a neck from Talakan.

Fingers crossed I’m A Lumberjack can give us further cause for celebration at Doncaster tomorrow. He runs in the handicap hurdle, having produced a career-best performance when runner=-up in a similar race at Newbury’s Christmas meeting. Even off a 3lb higher mark he ought to be hard to beat.

We have runners in the first two races at Bangor on Friday. Baby Sage, a winner of a bumper and a hurdle race, was reported to have bled on his first run over fences at Huntingdon in November, but he got round safely when subsequently finishing fifth over the same course before Christmas,

Half an hour later Betterforeveryone seeks a third course win in the North Wales National  He, too, recorded his best performance over this course when winning last October, and, though that was over three miles, he has stamina in abundance as we saw when he won over four miles at Hexham 11 months ago.

Betterforeveryone last ran at Uttoxeter in November, finishing a creditable fourth, but he has run well fresh before, so, hopefully, an absence of 10 weeks will not be a problem.