Racing Post

Deise Aba worth siding with back at Sandown

STRICTLYADANCER heads the market for the London National at Sandown and it’s hard to argue with that.

I thought Christian Williams’ seven-year-old was facing a stiff task at Haydock last time against a horse I thought well treated (Empire Steel) but he dealt with him well and is clearly thriving.

There may well be a time when his hectic schedule catches up with him – this would be his fifth 3m-plus chase in just under two months – but if he stays the 3m5f trip he will surely run well again.

Preference though is for Deise Aba, who may well be able to add this 3m5f contest to the two London Masters he has won at this course over 3m.

Deise Aba has as many letters as numbers in his recent form figures as he has pulled up on three of his last five starts, but he showed how well suited he was to Sandown when bagging the London Masters for a second time in February.

That came after consecutive non-completions at Haydock and Chepstow, but he heads to this race in much better form as his returning second to Koshari at Aintree was a clear career-best over hurdles.

I wouldn’t read too much into the fact the winner was an 80-1 shot as he’d recently left Willie Mullins and wouldn’t have been far off favourite if he hadn’t, and the form looks solid enough as third-placed Remastered was running a cracker when coming down in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury on Saturday.

Back at Aintree there are two who interest me in the Unibet 2021 Horse Race Betting Operator Of The Year Handicap Hurdle and I reckon both could end up a deal shorter.

The first is obvious favourite Tamar Bridge, who promises to be well suited by the step up to 3m and coasted home by 13 lengths on his reappearance in novice company at Wetherby to make it 3-4 overall.

That backed up the impression he made when comfortably dealing with Bass Rock in a match at Ayr in March, and the second has taken off since then, winning two Class 2 handicaps and running third in a big one over 3m at Haydock recently.

Bass Rock is now rated 132, so Tamar Bridge could well prove chucked in on his handicap debut off a mark of just 128.

Last year’s winner Kateson is also worth considering each-way though.

I thought he was worth a chance back over fences at this track last time simply because it was Aintree, but he proved fairly conclusively there that he is not a chaser with an error-strewn round.

His other non-chase Aintree form includes a second in the Grade 2 bumper here as a youngster, and a fifth off 22 to Tronador in a red-hot handicap hurdle in the spring, and he’s certainly not badly treated on a mark 4lb lower than for that.

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2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://racingpost.pressreader.com/article/281646783417506

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