Uttoxeter 3.30

Placespotter - Uttoxeter 3.30 18 Optimistic Bias @ 10/1 / 13 Henllai Harry @ 10/1

(all bookies go odds to 4th place - Paddy Power/SkyBet go odds to 5th place)

The standout race, especially when you take on board concerns about the weather/going at Windsor is the

big summer Chase at Uttoxeter at 3.30 and with a fair bit of local knowledge, lets have a bash at that.

Two things to say about Uttoxeter, firstly, it is (as the crow flies) my local track; being about 20 miles up the road;

we had torrential rain on Wednesday/Thursday, and I can't believe the Going is any better than Good and I'd have

a view it is on the soft side of Good. The other point about this track is it has a unique shape, it is left handed

with a tight bend past the start line, but in the back straight the actually go almost right handed at one point as

you don't follow the rails, more plot the straightest course from a to b as the track has a distinct curve, the

home bend sweeps round from this point and the last few fences come at you very quickly, in one word "unique";

and as a result, I place great asset to any horse proven over the Course and the trip always takes getting too.

There are 20 runners and the other form aspect for me is to remember we are in mid summer; if this race was held

in mid winter on the same ground, same runners; it would have a totally different complexion, some of these

are proven summer horses, some are proven winter horses, indeed you could make the same point about the

trainers, some are mainly winter exponents and all but close down in the summer, others are dual summer/

winter and a few actively target the summer races and keep very good horses for races like this.

I narrowed the shortlist down to 4 and leave out reluctantly SILVER MAN and BEREA BORU the former

may be not quite good enough but likes it here and has run well in this race before, the latter would ideally

have wanted even more rain and a few furlongs more BUT if it goes off at a real hard pace and there is

plenty of cut in the ground the type to back "in running" if he is behind on the first circuit as he will stay on.

The 2 selections, Berea Boru's stablemate HENLLAI HARRI is a must, a surprise for some winner of the

bet 365, a Course winner, a Distance winner and a winner over further, Peter Bowen in good form and one

of those Trainers that targets summer jumping and his son Sean really impressing all who know a potentially

great jockey when they see one. The fact he has been kept in training for this is a positive sign and the 10/1

is frankly an incredible price. The other one is OPTIMISTIC BIAS; on a 4 timer, another who has won over

Course and Distance, has shot up the weights but off 125 only 2lbs above his last win mark and a mark

he has also won off before, so not over-burdened. He is one of those horses that is delivered late and

just does what he has to, a tough ask to win 4 in a row, but hard to see him not involved here.

That's all for today; lets hope first of all they all come home safe and then for some profit.