Nicky Henderson is making waves with a number of novices this season and has four horses he is sending to Doncaster on Tuesday. It is a course in which 34 of his 74 runners have finished in the top two in recent seasons. Find out his quarter below alongside an excellent offer from William Hill, who are offering Bet £10 – Get 30 In Free Bets to new customers.
CITY CHIEF 10/11
Although he disappointed favourite backers on that occasion, CITY CHIEF still made a very encouraging debut at Ascot last month.
He was trapped in a pocket rounding the final bend and also got sandwiched between his two closest rivals approaching the second last. That he stayed on very strongly in the closing stages shows there is an engine, even if it took a while to wind up.
He will be running at more or less the same trip here on his second start and many will notice the colours he carries being those of the mighty Shishkin and Al Boum Photo too. The Donnellys rarely have a poor one.
High-class bumper performer Wonderwall looks the chief danger, but it would be a surprise if City Chief did not make into a very useful individual.
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GALLYHILL 6/1
GALLYHILL evidently has not been the easiest to train since winning a point-to-point in November 2019.
It took him well over a year to meet a racecourse under rules, but he did win at Newbury in a novice hurdle almost a year ago. He followed that with a second at Ascot when upped in trip before pulling up in Grade 1 company at Aintree over three miles.
He was found to have made a noise that day and wind surgery did not immediately produce a response as he fell when beaten in a novice handicap on his chase debut in November.
There are significant questions to answer, but he was bought for £450,000 at Cheltenham’s sales in December 2019 and his point win would point to him eventually being a better chaser. A return to softer ground might be what he is after here as well.
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RUSSIAN RULER 6/5
There is a lot to like about RUSSIAN RULER as a prospect for novice hurdling this season, as if Henderson needed any more of those at Seven Barrows right now.
He hasn’t the flashiest pedigree, certainly when compared to Jonbon, nor was he bought for an extreme sum like aforementioned stablemate Gallyhill. However, he won a bumper at Warwick under hands and heels from Nico De Boinville, beating a stablemate in Surrey Quest.
That horse has won both of his novice hurdles so far, even if the rest of the field have amounted to little (3rd won a handicap off low mark), so it has been franked by the most significant opposition that day.
It would not take too much of a stretch to see him make waves at this level before a festival visit at Cheltenham or Aintree.
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No runs yet, so there is no form to recommend HURRICANE LE DUN on, but there is still plenty else to investigate.
His dam was the half-sister to the dam of Salsaretta, with his sire having fathered five different Grade 1 winners over jumps to date. All of those apart from Sharjah have been better over fences, so there may be little to pick up on in bumpers.
Nevertheless, Henderson has a better win percentage in bumpers in his career than over hurdles or fences, with a remarkable 25% of his runners in the code having been victorious. As such, there is plenty of reason to keep an eye on Hurricane Le Dun.
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