Monday, February 7, 2011

Sports World

---

A chance to Ravel in a cracking Derby bet Posted: 07 Feb 2011 07:18 AM PST Every now and again a greyhound catches your eye and leaves you wondering "how good could that one be?" Well that is exactly the feeling I was left with having seen Danny Riordan's Rio Ravel win at Hove back in November. The December 08 son of Ace Hi Rumble, won in a blistering 29.53 on that evening, a truly sensational run and one that highlighted Danny Riordan's black as runner with a serious future. Another key factor in siding with Rio Ravel is his proven ability to act at Wimbledon, the track that hosts the Derby. In winning at the circuit in October, he could count the top-class Droopys Oscar amongst his victims and the style of his win that night, suggested the six tough rounds of a Derby campaign would hold no fears to him, even if he is an outsider in the Greyhound Derby odds. A strong running type, he has cracking middle gears and appeals as a runner who can keep qualifying through the early stages of the competition, but also one who will battle as hard as he can when the chips are down in the latter stages and will never give up. His trainer Danny Riordan is experienced in handling Derby campaigners, he has trained both Rio Ricardo and the brilliant Droopys Corleone, reaching Derby semi-finals and it will come as no surprise if Rio Ravel goes one better than those illustrious kennel companions and makes the final in June. At odds of at least 66/1 he rates amazing value and is well worth a bet at this early stage.

Medermit emerges as a genuine Arkle contender Posted: 07 Feb 2011 03:15 AM PST When the Alan King-trained Medermit refused while leading at Huntingdon on his second novice chase outing back in November, few observers would have genuinely reckoned that the talented grey would in fact prove good enough to win the Grade 1 Totepool Challenger Novices' Chase, (better known as the Scilly Isles Novices Chase) at Sandown, but that is exactly what he did on Saturday, winning in the style of a potentially very smart performer, writes Elliot Slater. King has never lost faith in the grey son of Medaaly who proved good enough to fail by only a neck to catch the smart Go Native in the 2009 Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and finished seventh to Binocular in the Champion Hurdle a year later. A lot of focus will be on the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting odds when the Festival rolls around, but Medermit looks like he should be able to claim glory in one of the other high-profile races. Medermit's Huntingdon antics followed a perfectly easy win on his chasing bow at Aintree in October, and he duly got back on track when wining with something to spare at Plumpton on December. Just run out of it at Cheltenham in Grade 2 company by the useful Hell's Bay, Medermit showed that he had his mind back on the job and at Sandown he jumped for fun before going clear at the last, only to do what so many horses have down on the Esher run-in over the years and idle in front, allowing Captain Chris to come with a late rattle which Robert Thornton's mount held after rallying well inside the last 50 yards to score by half-a-length. The seven-year-old immediately advanced to 6/1 favourite for the two-and-a-half miles Jewson Novices' Chase at Cheltenham 2011, and was cut to the same price for the Arkle chase over the minimum trip, for which Finian's Rainbow (4/1f) and Ghizao (5/1) are the current market front-runners. A decision as to which race will be chosen for Medermit has yet to be taken.

You are subscribed to email updates from Sports World To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610