Violet Dancer

7th-Feb-2015

I am also backing old friend Violet Dancer. Gary Moore’s horse probably would have won that good two-mile handicap hurdle at Kempton over Christmas when we had him on side had he not made a bad mistake at the final flight. As it was, he just went down by a short head to Cloonacool.

He has been raised 4lb for that run, but that is more than acceptable. He remains a really progressive young novice hurdler, and the form of the Gerry Feilden Hurdle in which he finished third in November just gets stronger and stronger. The winner L’Ami Serge has won the Tolworth Hurdle since Christmas and is now second favourite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Violet Dancer should continue to progress now, he will relish today’s testing conditions, and he should be more at home at the galloping track that is Newbury than he was on Kempton’s relatively tight circuit. On top of that, his trainer Gary Moore has a fine record in this race, with two winners and two places from just 12 runners. Violet Dancer gets to race under just 10st 9lb, and he is a big price.

VIOLET DANCER WON (ADV 22/1, SP 20/1)

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