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Nick Luck

Nick Luck’s blog: Doyle can take a Hand on Finals Day

2 years ago
| BY News Team

There’s a Good Friday treat in store at Lingfield with a top line up for All-Weather Championships Finals Day, while there is Listed action at Newcastle too.

Here are Nick Luck’s thoughts on all the action.

Lingfield

RANCH HAND can take the opener on All-Weather Championships Finals Day (2.00pm) for James Doyle and Andrew Balding at 7/2. The five-year-old has been consistent enough on turf over the past couple of seasons but is a different kettle of fish on the all-weather and is yet to taste defeat on the surface. He’s still relatively unexposed at this two-mile trip and there was much to like about his reappearance win at Chelmsford last time, where you always felt he had Rock Eagle’s measure.

She’s not the most original choice, but INDIE ANGEL looks a solid favourite in the fillies and mares’ (2.35pm). She has plenty in hand on official figures and showed she’s a pretty classy filly with the way she took apart a solid field at Lingfield last time. I think it’s significant that the Gosdens are keeping her in training as a four-year-old and she can take this on the way to bigger and better things at 10/11.

There could be more Irish dominance on these shores in the sprint (3.10pm) as HARRY’S BAR looks to hold pretty solid claims. He’s clearly a very talented animal from a good family and the switch across the Irish Sea seems to have worked wonders. Things didn’t go right in Saudi Arabia and you can ignore his last run as a mile is clearly much too far for him. If you put a line through those two efforts and concentrate on his three and a quarter-length spanking of Speak In Colours at Dundalk in early February, he should be a fair amount shorter than his current 7/2. The manner of that win suggests this is a very good horse and I expect him to get the job done.

MIGHTY GURKHA isn’t the most straightforward but the conditions stakes (3.45pm) looks his for the taking at 10/3. He hasn’t really built on the early promise he showed as a two-year-old, but he’s been much better on his last two appearances on the all-weather and he’s now three from four on the surface. I expect Hollie Doyle to adopt similar tactics to what she did at Kempton last time and make all from the front.

PALAVECINO is a sporting selection in the Easter Classic (4.15pm). Brian Meehan’s five-year-old has a bit to find with Bangkok on their last meeting, but he looked a real danger turning in and that’s despite the fact I don’t think the race was really run to suit. There should be more pace on here and he could easily ruffle a few feathers at 10/1.

Newcastle

Over at Newcastle, MEGALLAN looks to have found an ideal opportunity to get back to winning ways in the Listed Burradon Stakes (3.25pm) at 4/6. John and Thady Gosden’s three-year-old ran in some top-class contests last season and was arguably going better than anything at the two-furlong pole in the Autumn Stakes but met traffic problems to only finish fourth. Some have talked him up as a possible Guineas contender and although this might seem a strange prep for that, Palace Pier started off at the same track last year and we all know what he went on to do.

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