Challow Hurdle Betting Guide - Newbury (31st Dec)

Dec. 29, 2011 - PRLog -- With recent Kempton winner Knight Pass set to bypass the Grade One Challow Hurdle at Newbury on New Year’s Eve then all eyes will be on Philip Hobbs’ unbeaten Fingal Bay – a horse named after a stunning holiday resort in New South Wales, Australia.

Now a winner of all four of his career starts it was his last victory at Sandown that really got the pulses racing after he saw off the smart Simonsig by 2 ¾ lengths. It was the manor of that win that caught the eye, as a few out he looked in trouble but is clearly one of those horses that loves his racing and was really gutsy to repel the challenge of his Nicky Henderson-trained rival to win going away in the end.

He’s currently around 16/1 for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, but is more likely to go for either the Neptune Investment Management Hurdle, which he is currently the 5/1 favourite, or the Albert Barlett Novices Hurdle (11/2 favourite), as both races are other further.

He’s expected to be a warm order on Saturday and another win there, which will take his tally to 5 unbeaten, is sure to have an impact of those two Cheltenham Festival ante-post markets.

Looking at his main opposition at this stage Nicky Henderson, who should know exactly where he stands with Fingal Bay, has two entered in the race – Captain Conan and Top Of The Range. Both are winners last time out and should they both take their chance then keep an eye on jockey bookings, but despite looking to have plenty to find with the Hobbs horse the yard are in cracking form and it would be no surprise to see them run a big race.

Based on the ratings then the closest runner to the likely favourite will be the Ian Williams-trained Barbatos, who has been assessed 10lbs inferior to Fingal Bay. We last saw this grey running third in the same race Fingal Bay won at Sandown, beaten just short of 19 lengths, and was actually getting 3lbs that day.

Finally, others worth a mention are Nigel Twiston-Davies Double Ross, who has a lot to find on the book, but was a really impressive winner at Folkestone earlier this month and after this race connections will know a lot more about him. The same really applies to Sue Smith’s Fill The Power, who is another on the upgrade after a 7 length Newcastle win last time, while the in-form Tim Vaughan team will be pinning their hopes on Ballyrock running a big race.

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