05/10/16 Straight From The Trainers Mouth

Nigel Twiston Davies

2.40 Ludlow – Templehills 4/6

Meets just three rivals and comes into this on the back of a decent win at Uttoxeter 17 days ago. He takes a 7lb penalty for that but jockey Tom Humphries takes off 10lbs and the pair look to have every chance over a slightly further trip than the win.

★★★★★

3.50 Towcester - Moonday Sun

Also runs in a small field of five, but it looks a competitive event. A winner of two hurdles off of 113 and 114, a raise to 120 last time saw him a close up third. All those last three saw him wear a hood and this is dispensed with now. The trip and fast ground should suit, Sam Twiston-Davies rides and the pair look to have a very good chance.

★★★★★

David Pipe

3:50 Towcester – Chic Theatre 2/1

 He was a winner on good ground at Doncaster last season and our six year old looks to have decent claims from a mark of 120 under stable jockey Tom Scudamore.

★★★★☆

Ger Lyons

3:35 Navan – Wayside Flower 3/1

WAYSIDE FLOWER is a filly that we've liked from the start and because she showed us plenty early doors we tried to qualify for Royal Ascot. That was not to be and we gave her an early season break and I do think that she needed her last start. Colin was of the opinion that she didn't concentrate 100% at Gowran so we've gone straight for some headgear today. Hopefully she can break her maiden today and we can decide then what our long term plan will be after that.

★★★★☆

4:05 Navan – Harbour Beacon 9/2

HARBOUR BEACON is a lovely big Colt by Harbour Watch and he's needed as much time as we've given him to come to hand. He has always been a bit spooky and his first run was always going to be an interesting exercise. If he puts his best foot forward I would expect a good solid run

★★★★☆

4:05 Navan – Circling Moon 33/1

CIRCLING MOON had his first start at Gowran a few weeks ago and I felt that another start was needed before we put him away until next year. We feel he's come on and is much sharper today and hopefully he can give us some encouragement for his three year old career.

★★★☆☆

4:35 Navan – Toccata Blue 25/1

TOCCATA BLUE is after playing his part all summer on the gallops and if he gets the trip today and runs well we will carry on up at Dundalk with him. He's probably getting to the end of his term here and we may consider dropping him into a claimer later on up there. I would hope that we can win another little race with him to add to his five but he's been a grand fun horse for his owner to have

★★★☆☆

5:05 Navan – The Paris Shrug 50/1

THE PARIS SHRUG is well related but has her issues and my feeling is that she could have ran in the 2m maiden on this card but I do like to start them short for their first run. These trip horses are hard to call at home and I would hope to learn plenty from this run today before we decide our next run. As I said, I do love to introduce horses here at Navan and the fact that it's our local track is a bonus.

★★☆☆☆

5:05 Navan – Ex Patriot 6/1

The last race of the day is a 10f maiden and I'm taking a chance dropping EX PATRIOT back in trip. I believe it has been pure weakness with him up to now over the extended trips I've been running over and I'm using Blinkers to help him today. He's in good order and there's no doubt that he's vulnerable to an unexposed sort but if he runs his race he should be involved here.

★★★☆☆

Fergal O’Brien

3:20 Towcester – Black Hawk 14/1

He has shown a bit of promise in novice hurdles but we still have lots to learn about him so we have stepped him in trip to 2 mile 5 and we will see how he handles it. He works well on the gallops so hopefully he can run a solid race today.

★★☆☆☆

4:10 Ludlow – Master Dee 2/1

There is a non runner so that brings the field size down to just 4 runners. He is wearing cheek pieces for the first time and we hope that might sharpen his jumping up a bit and enable him to keep up his fine form!!!

★★★★☆

5:10 Ludlow – Athy River 10/1

She ran a lovely race at Perth on her racecourse debut to come a solid 4th and with better ground today we hope she can build on that and run another good race. 

★★★☆☆