Showers forecast tomorrow which would be welcome for Ski Lift at Newbury
March 20
We had an exciting bunch of bumper horses last season, giving us hope that one or two of them would make above-average novice hurdlers this winter, and one example its Ski Lodge, who returns to action in the opener at Newbury on Friday.
Alan has always had a high opinion about Ski Lodge, who he has declared for our local course in preference to Ffos Las, not because of the distance in journey but due to the fact that at present the ground is slower at Newbury than it is on the Welsh track.
Rain is forecast tomorrow, which also increases Alan’s optimism, and assessing Ski Lift’s prospects he said:”We had to pull out Ski Lift from Doncaster at the start of the month when the ground dried up and made underfoot conditions too quick, and you saw how much he enjoyed getting his toe in when winning impressively in the soft at Haydock in December.”
Ski Lift was “off games” after that success, having pulled muscles badly across his back and quarters when working, but he is fine now and ready to resume.
Alan added:”Ski Lift really wants three miles, but I can’t find a suitable race over that trip and with Newbury being a big galloping course he should get away with this two and a half. This will be his third run over hurdles, so he’ll then be ready for handicaps, which will make things easier.”
Mythical Moon, who has been placed three times since he made a winning debut over jumps at Stratford in October, runs in his first handicap at Newbury.
Alan said:”Mythical Moon’s main target is the novice hurdle championship final at Sandown on the last day of the season. He qualified for that when runner-up at Exeter last time, but he will definitely be more effective on this less testing ground than he was at Haldon.”
The same could be said about our third runner at Newbury, Geturguccion in the three mile hurdle. Alan has put a line through the mare’s inexplicable run over the course in January – and nothing came to light afterwards – but she had run well previously when runner-up at both at Ludlow and Plumpton, so will hopefully bounce back here.
