BBOLD 4.33 SEDGEFIELD
One of my favourite meetings of the season takes place at Sedgefield today and of course the Durham National. It started in the 90s as a 0-125 and was worth 10k to the winner so it was a nice prize. Today its a 0-145 with 15k to the winner, 3k less than in recent years. I have two trends for the race which for the first year have not selected anything but it is interesting that Dr Newland has his first runner in the race since 2017. Considering he is 3-5 in the race plus has also saddled a second it looks like a target. Dr Newland has a 34% strike rated at Sedgefield with all his runners and that improves to 47% during the months of August to November. Even though he hasn't had a runner in the Durham National since 2017, his record at the track since then reads 5-8. In fact when Rikoboy lost earlier this month, it was the first time Dr Newland travelled home without a winner since 2016.
Horses that leave Dan Skelton's yard are generally bottomed out but BBold has bucked that trend by winning a 0-115 off 116. The form isn't special but his third to Princeton Royale is on a different page to his rivals. He was 6ls behind Young Wolf, rated 134, and that horse has won since off 4lbs higher and is now rated 142. He was just over 2ls in front Fidux who won a 0-145 yesterday and 7ls in front of Shoal Bay who won a 0-140 the other day. Bbold was beaten 2ls by rising star Manofthemountain last time who was winning the fourth of his last five chases. The winner was given a Performance Rating of 137 so in receipt of 5lbs the handicapper may well have underestimated Bbold giving him a rating of 127.
Last time out winners of a chase are 0-29 in this so Duc De Grissay, Doing Fine and Theligny have a major stat to overcome.
Horses that finished eighth or worse or didn't finish are 2-45 with the last winner in 2011.
That stat on its own narrows the field to four. However, Bbold is only a 6yo and will have bags of improvement in him and it looks like the good doctor has targeted this race.
Dr Newland also saddles Mr Muldoon in a cracking novice chase at 3.25