Oak Could Bounce Back To Form At Hexham

We were out of luck with It’s Jennifer on Saturday, but it wasn’t a run totally devoid of promise. She could never muster a challenge, and she didn’t jump anywhere near well enough to land a blow. In fairness to her, she did actually stay on past a good few in the home straight to finish 9th, and she was only 6 or 7L off the fourth placed horse. Given that she is from the family of a Grand National winner, there could be more to come from her upped further in trip.

Ryan Day in full flight on Runswick Royal.

Tuesday is rarely a day chock full of quality, and tomorrow’s cards are no exception. However, one horse at Hexham appeals as being potentially overpriced and he goes in the 2m 4f handicap chase at 14.30. Ann Hamilton has her string back firing after a slow few months, and now that she has hit form it could be worth chancing her 7yo son of Fruits Of Love, Oak Vintage.

This lad has been desperately disappointing since opening his account at Sedgefield this time last year (20f soft), but he could bounce back to form back up in trip after a trio of runs at 2 miles. His form in general this season has been awful, but that could be said about the majority of the Hamilton horses until the last few weeks. It seems they have turned the corner, and as a result of their barren spell they have plenty of well handicapped horses to go to war with.

Oak Vintage was handed an opening mark of 112 for his hurdle win, and he did manage to finish a well held 4th off 110 at Kelso over 2 miles back in October. It has been downhill since then, but every cloud has a silver lining and he is now rated 22lb lower off a mark of 88. Ryan Day takes off another 5lb, so off an effective mark of 83 surely Oak Vintage is capable of getting involved in what looks a poor race.

As was mentioned earlier the Hamilton yard is going well, and their last 3 runners have produced form figures of 212. Ryan Day has ridden stable star Runswick Royal to victory on his last two starts, and he has 3 wins and 2 places from a total of 10 rides for Hamilton. She in turn has had 13 winners and 18 places from 76 runners at Hexham, so it is clearly a track she likes. Oak Vintage isn’t one for maximum faith so stakes should be kept small, but at odds of 16/1 I think there are enough positives to justify an each way bet.

STEVOS’ SELECTION: 14.30 HEXHAM-OAK VINTAGE E/W @ 16/1