Huntingdon, Tuesday

Richard Guest's first runners of what looks like a comparatively quiet week for him are REEDSMAN and BALLYBOE BOY at Huntingdon's Tuesday evening meeting. Not one of the yard's most productive tracks, this - Page Point's victory in a hurdle over Easter was the first Mason / Guest winner there for over four years - although one that is visited frequently enough. This is the last meeting there until the August Bank Holiday, Huntingdon not really being part of the Summer Jumping racecourse roster proper (Hereford similarly shuts up shop for a few months after tomorrow's meeting also).

Reedsman runs in a conditional jockeys' selling hurdle and has the particularly capable Paul O'Neill in the plate. He's been pinging in the winners for both Guest and Venetia Williams since moving full-time to the UK in January, and won't be claiming tht 7lb for much longer! As for the horse, he is one of the most delinquent animals ever to represent the yard, with two last-minute unseatings and one crashing through a wing of a hurdle to his name. That said, his last two runs - a rather streaky second in a Fakenham seller when five horses departed in front of him, plus a fourth in an amateurs' race in the soothing hands of Claire Metcalfe - have shown a modicum of improvement, so Paul might not be in for quite the frightening experience he may have expected a few weeks ago. If the thing does win, I can't imagine the yard will be particularly diving into its pockets to buy him back at auction - it's noticeable that since Gemma Charrington withdrew her interest in Reedsman over a year ago, Richard Guest has not tried to sell that ownership on to anyone else but himself....

The extended two-mile chase is Ballyboe Boy's race, and connections will be hoping for more luck than at Hexham last Tuesday night when, in a bizarre old incident, another horse rearing whilst in the throes of refusing to race bundled Henry Oliver off Ballyboe and the partnership out of the race instantly! Henry will, I suggest, be keeping a closer eye than usual on all other participants down at the start....