Lady Ardad has a gilt-edged opportunity of making it fifth time lucky in a fourteen-runner Nursery over six furlongs of Southwell tapeta tonight when a complete eight-race racecard has been programmed with handicaps; from my perspective it’s a travesty and disappointing but two-year-olds are my speciality and if Les Eyre’s charge is able to hit his last time out mark this Ardad filly should prevail under Lewis Edmunds.
Isn’t it amazing how juveniles improve considerably after three ‘qualifying’ runs?
For the most part it’s either cheating or shrewd manipulation of the system which Sir Mark Prescott has exploited so successfully for decades with jockeys Duffield, Sanders and now Morris fully versed on procedure.
Eyre, another experienced veteran who spent many years training in Spain, when it became too difficult or indeed uneconomical in the United Kingdom, knows the time of day; you can bet Les knew Lady Ardad would be better suited by going a furlong further than the minimum distance which was the case eight weeks ago when she finished sixth (of 19!) down the Redcar straight with a ‘new’ jockey, Joe Fanning!
Judged on that effort Lady Ardad is in with a very winnable chance, especially being drawn best, in stall one which, with a clean break, will enable her to nip round the long bend soon after the start and dominate.
There is a time-handicap danger among a plethora of ‘nonentities’ and that’s Berry Quick, berthed in the ultimate ‘coffin box’ of fourteen, which surely rules him out.
To all intents and purposes Lady Ardad represents a serious betting proposition and will be backed accordingly with Lewis back on.
Earlier there is an AWR fixture at Wolverhampton but it looks tough and of much more interest is a juicy NH card around ‘good to soft’ Ludlow with two novice hurdle races and a ‘bumper.’
Respective selections for the ‘novices’ are Lady Of The Night and Iontach Cheval which meet median requirement and will make for an each-way double to pay for all Xmas expense.
Sincerely hope you are able to enjoy the small break in the face of world-wide Covid-19 which, as we now know, must not be underestimated one iota; listen to the scientists and keep safe, promise?
Selections, Southwell, 6.30 Lady Ardad (e.w); Ludlow, 1.15 Lady Of The Night (e.w); 4.45 Iontach Cheval (e.w)
Jeffrey Ross, horse-racing correspondent for WMN since 1983 when winning the most prestigious racing journalist award, Sporting Life Naps Table, before winning it a record number of six times collectively in the Racing Post, the current ‘trade’ paper, including 2019