Croc of shit

1:30 Hereford - Novice Hurdle (Class 4) (4yo+) 2m 4f Soft

CROCODILE ROCK – (Jonjo O'Neil - A P McCoy)
# Carries huge weight of 12-2
# Won a novice hurdle on his hurdles debut last time
# All 3 career wins have come at L/H tracks
# Only time he has raced R/H he was unplaced (bumper) and it was his worst career run (admittedly was his first ever run so cant read too much into it)
# Although the stable is showing signs of returning to form after a bad period a lot of the runners are still running badly
# Top stables are in opposition – P Nicholls, P Hobbs, D Pipe, N Twiston-Davies, D McCain Jnr and Miss H Knight etc. (Knight and Nicholls have both won this race before)
# Novice with a 10 l/b penalty giving weight away all round

Overview:

Crocodile Rock may well be the horse to beat but he looks vastly underpriced carrying such a big weight on his first run for 74 days on this soft ground. Has to prove his effectiveness going R/H and although some stable runners are returning to form, some of Jonjo O’Neils are still running flat and its a case of pay your money and take your chance with this stable at present. Plenty of top stables in opposition.
Cooldine Boy ran a really good race on his hurdles debut and first run since April 06, getting 10 l/b from Crocodile Rock I make him the horse to beat for a stable that does well here. He will improve for that initial run and should be spot on fitness wise today. Anything that Paul Nicholls runs in any race has to be respected and ‘So Now’ cant be left out of calculations as its likely he needed his first run for 14 months last time and should be sharper this time. ‘Petitfour’ and ‘Choumaker’ are also respected in this. In a 16 runner field we have plenty of horses running for us to beat the lay and I think this is more open than the market suggests and at 1.63 the downside isn’t too bad if Crocodile Rock does prove good enough to defy the penalty.

4 Point LAY – CROCODILE ROCK @ 1.6


RESULT: http://horses.sportinglife.com/Full_Results/0,12493,252191,00.html

A satisfying start to Thursday as Crocodile Rock could only manage 2nd. Unbelievably it traded at 1.01 on Betfair in running, whilst it did look like it would probably win at the final fence it never justified being 1.01 so there are some crazy in running punters operating. The weight told in the end and the 12-2 on his back anchored him in the final furlong and saw Petitfour get up to win by a length.