Duel At Dawn

25th-Mar-2017

It looks like neither the handicapper nor the market has believed Duel At Dawn’s latest run, when he finished third behind Constantine Bay and No Hassle Hoff in the Grade 2 River Don Hurdle at Doncaster last month.  He was well beaten by the front two, but Constantine Bay ran a cracker to finish fourth in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle at Cheltenham last Friday, and he would have done even better had he not been hampered at the second last flight, and No Hassle Hoff finished second next time to the highly talented The Worlds End – the horse who fell at the second last and hampered Constantine Bay in the Albert Bartlett.

Also, Duel At Dawn had useful the novice Happy Diva behind him in fourth place at Doncaster, and Happy Diva has run two good races in defeat since.

On his last run before the River Don, Alex Hales’ horse beat the 1/16 shot Blue Rambler in a two-horse race, after which Blue Rambler went to race at the Dubai Racing Carnival.  There is a chance that Duel At Dawn is just a seriously improved horse now for Hales, and a mark of 130 could under-rate him considerably.

DUEL AT DAWN WON (ADV 15/2, SP 5/1)