Racetrack Wiseguy

This is the time of year I, for one, wait for for most of it and these are the sort of days why. The big stables with the good horses are in-form and trying, taking each other on, and it's sport as interesting as it gets.

Mr. Henderson usually starts knocking in a few good winners by the end of November and today, with Act of Innocence, he impressively landed the Newbury race won by such horses as Jonbon and plenty of others that Act of Innocence might go on to be mentioned alongside. Confidence behind that and Impose Toi, who got there in the end, provide the ammunition for what is surely the race of the season thus far.

I've taken a view about tomorrow's Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle for quite some time and looked forward to a 'proper bet' never mind what condition the account is in. But it's easy to be bullish before one sees the state of play when the moment arrives. 

Constitution Hill was the horse of a generation, if not a lifetime, until one or two things went amiss. Illness didn't stop him re-appearing and winning but then he started tripping over things and then came disappointingly nowhere in Ireland. Market confidence tomorrow indicates that some big money thinks he's back to his best but my first instinct was to take him on.

Willie Mullins's Anzadam is also noticeably shorter than what he's achieved so far gives him any right to be and rumour has it that he's a machine although A.P. McCoy today was determinedly unimpressed. 

Harry Skelton has long been advertising what he thinks of The New Lion (Newcastle, 2.00) and that has been backed up in a couple of top class races. I'm not inclined to desert him until he's beaten but, in the light of the betting, I'm not going to re-mortgage the house to back him either. I'd only have my own overblown confidence to blame if the Irish or Henderson money got it right but equally so if I'd been right all along and missed out. So, we still stick to the plan and back it without going overboard because if there's one thing to be trusted, it's the plan.

I'll be out of the Menuhin Room in time to find a shop to watch it in. It's a bit too exciting not to see as it happens.