10:25 – Ferronniere
Vutera warrants a strong market check here making it’s debut for the all-powerful Francois Nicolle stable, but enthusiasm is dampened with the booking of a very inexperienced jockey who has only had one win over fences to date.
While they will have the negative of inexperienced horse and rider, the opposite can be said for Gab Leenders’ Ferronniere who has already been a winner over fences. She was an impressive winner over fences in Compiegne in June and has been highly tried since in listed and group 3 company. The drop to this grade will play massively in her favour and she is the one they will all have to beat.
11:55 – Golden Years
Showed little inexperience when winning on hurdling debut on what was only his second career start on November 29th when pulling two lengths clear of a decent-looking field. The reopposing Gedeon Madrik was very well backed that day but was not given too hard a ride.
He can certainly close the gap on the selection but with only 1kg of a weight swing, seems to have a tall order to reverse the form. Golden Years could very feasibly have improvement to come from for himself and he’s taken to make it two from two here.
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13:07 – Redness
Redness won two races over hurdles in the summer before graduating to chasing in her last two starts where she has far from disgraced herself and seems to be improving still in this sphere. Was beaten around here on the last of these runs by a horse that’s already established as a very good chaser and there is a proper strong feel to this piece of form. There doesn’t look to be anything of that calibre opposing today so it all looks in place for her to gain a first win over fences.
14:17 – Deo Gratias
Eddy de Balme will have plenty of supporters here following his win on December 2nd at Fontainbleau. That was his fourth win from only six starts over fences and he is clearly suited by the larger obstacles. He is a solid proposition but I think there’s one here to take it on with.
Deo Gratias was very talented hurdler (culminated with a win in a €100k listed race in Auteuil in March) and has been improving in each of her three starts over fences; winning on the latest occasion here at Pau. If she continues to progress over fences I think she has a far higher ceiling than Eddy and can leave that rival trailing before going on to bigger and better things over fences.
Tips for Pau on Thursday
10:25 – Ferronniere
11:55 – Golden Years
13:07 – Redness
14:17 – Deo Gratias
* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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