Kautothegreat8
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- Dec 9, 2019
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I don’t think A Plus Tard is a right-off for this race. He is a 160-rated 5yo (rising 6) and the trainer believes he needs to go left-handed, and his trip is middle-distances. A big plus is that he is trained by HdB and ridden by Rachel Blackmore.
Since the last Festival he has run right-handed over 3 Miles and on seasonal debut - left-handed over 2 Miles.
As Leopardstown is 2M1F at Christmas we still won’t see A Plus Tard over his optimum trip and track conditions until he lines up on the Thursday in the Ryanair.
He didn’t look too shabby last year, I cannot recall being at the Festival and seeing a horse run at that speed up the hill in a 2&1/2M Chase (irrespective of opposition or weight).
Frodon showed us last year not to take lightly these potentially improving young french chasers, with track form.
Min is a solid fav for this if DDS goes down in trip, but the opposition to him shouldnt be written-off, racing just isn’t as simple as that.
I’m certainly not writing any horse off but to me there’s much stronger opposition in the race. Road to Respect and Un De Sceaux would be my idea of the biggest dangers to Min. These are genuine top class horses who have the form to compete at the highest level. Now at the price APT may look inviting to some people after last years victory but we really need to analyse what the horse has beaten. He really is going to need to improve to beat any of the 3 I’ve listed, and I’m talking like a stone. 16/1 for that to happen just isn’t appealing enough for me to take that gamble. Who knows ??? It’s racing I suppose.