The Daily Yankee
NAP OF THE DAY: Billaway, (1455 Down Royal), 1pt win, 2/1:
Was runner up when favourite for the Cheltenham Foxhunters and looked likely to make a winning return at Fairyhouse until blundering away his chance at the last and not able to recover in time. He should reverse placings with Stand Up And Fight barring calamitous error, and may be too classy for the win machine point-to-pointer Aloneamongmillions.
Demopolis, (1430 Hereford), 7/4: took a long time to come good over hurdles, but scored twice towards the end of last season and travelled with conspicuous ease when runner up on reappearance at Market Rasen where it was no disgrace to be outdone by a very well handicapped winner. Not sure how much he finds in a fight, but there shouldn’t be much in this field likely to get him off the bridle.
Hermocrates, (1635 Southwell), 9/4: an interesting rematch between Notation and Hermocrates after their clash over course and distance at the end of November. Notation made all and held on by a neck, Hermocrates gets a 1lb pull in the weights. Crucially trainer Johnston claims 5lbs off Notation, but in doing so he asks the promising Oliver Stammers to get his fractions just right on the front end. Wily veteran Graham Lee will play the stalker on Hermocrates and expect that experience to exploit any miscalculations from the pace-setter.
Geography Teacher, (1715 Southwell), 3/1: has won here on numerous occasions and signalled that the wins are far from over when a good runner up here last week. Got squeezed out at an early stage that day and had to do his running from the rear which is notoriously difficult on this surface. Still battled on bravely to chase home an in form rival who had much the better run of the race.
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