Fat Lads Fancies

Had this one last time out when he drifted to an absurd price before the off, despite tha he ran an absolute blinder and was only beaten by the trip into 3rd. The step back up in trip looks to suit based on that run and this previous C&D winner looks well handicapped to go in again. Despite it being a small field, it is a good race and although Castle Carrock is a very good horse, he has to concede weight here to what I feel is a well handicapped hurdler, and with the better recent form I'm sticking with the Lavelle trained runner Georges Lad.

Beat easily by Eldorado Allen on his seasonal debut last time out when well backed into 7/2, but given the fact he would have needed the run I'm happy to ignore that. With that run under his belt and fitness assured now, i expect him to put up a much better effort here. He won second time out in 2021, 2022 and in 2023 coming at this meeting in the December Gold Cup when rated 151. He has not won since then but he's not had many runs and he's off an 8 lb lower mark here with Charlie Maggs taking off 5 lb. With a good record around here and ground in his favour, i think he will be tough to beat.

Has a PU next to his name for a run that came 13 days ago and usually that's a huge negative, but easy to ignore on this occasion as he didn't even get past the starting line that day, as he wasn't even standing in the right direction when the flag was raised (the whole thing was just a mess). He comes here on the back of a very good 2nd at Bangor to Deep Cave, where he actually jumped the last in 1st that day before the jockey lost his irons and whip, and only just getting beat late on. He's up 3 lb but would have probably been raised an extra 3 lb had that not happened, Alan King horses are in good form and Bellamy rides,who's number 1 for the yard so i fancy this one's chances.