Record Return
23/06/2016
After winning a beginners chase at the opening meeting last month, Altruism reverts to hurdling for Friday’s big event. With two victories over hurdles to his name in 2015, Altruism clearly loves it round his local track and joins stable companion Captain Brown as Moffatt plans a dual raid on the big prize.
“I considered a novice chase for Altruism at Hexham, but am very happy to bring him back over hurdles, while Captain Brown didn’t stay last time and will be more of a force over a strongly run two miles as this will probably be.
“Altruism likes to force the pace and Captain Brown needs to be held up, so I have two bites at the cherry!” said Moffatt.
However, both are likely to face some stern opposition with Irish star Gordon Elliott likely to saddle Tempo Mac, while the big southern yards of Nicky Henderson, David Pipe, Dan Skelton and Nigel Twiston Davies all have entries for the race.
Lambourn maestro Henderson has earmarked One For The Guv’Nr for this race as the seven-year-old continues his comeback after a spell on the sidelines.
An outstanding novice two seasons ago when he won four times and was second twice from his first six starts, things went wrong after he ran at Aintree on Grand National day.
One For The Guv’Nr has run only once since, showing up really well at Huntingdon in February before a stumble at the last saw him unseat jockey Andrew Tinkler, but he had shown enough to suggest he will be a big player on Friday.
The £20,000 Oakmere Homes Handicap Chase will be the centrepiece of Cartmel’s second Sunday race meeting, to be staged this weekend.
The seven race card sees the second running of the Oakmere Homes Handicap Chase, won last season by the Mickey Hammond-trained Alderbrook Lad, who made all the running to beat Gordon Elliott’s Irish raider Definite Ruby, a winner at Punchestown this year.
The Sunday meeting also features the latest round of the Hadwins Mares Hurdle series, which carries a bonus of £1,000 for the mare collecting most points across the five-race competition at Cartmel this season.
