Good Morning, Friend,

I hope you're having a great week.

Below i’ve used the excellent ‘My Report Angles’ report in Geegeez Gold and worked my way through, picking out five horses that caught my eye. As always, do with what follows as you please. If they all fall out the back of the TV, there are some stats worth noting that will help you land on winners moving forwards...

• 1.30 Notts – Fair Wind – 9/2 – 5/1

• 2.25 Wolvs – Sweet Mist – 9/4

• 3.05 Leop – La Dame Blanche – 14/1-16/1

• 3.50 Notts – Coquelicot – 7/2

• 4.55 Notts- Papa Ricco – 11/2 – 6/1

Fair Wind –

• Hopefully any money for this 1st time out 3YO will be significant. Owen Burrows can ready them and he’s 10/25, 13p, +41 with all runners at Notts in the last 5 years. He’s 8/18,11p here with his 3YOs, 4/9,5p when in non-handicaps

• Ben Curtis rides this place well, worth noting more generally today and for future meetings, esp with 3YOs – 6/25,9p, +17 SP and with all rides over this 5f trip… 7/27,13p, +2.. 4/9,5p aged 3.

• This looks a fairly open maiden on paper to my eyes, those with experience haven’t set the world alight although early days of course. James Tate’s in fine form but I wasn’t sure his wanted dropping to 5f, but I could be wrong. Fair Wind is related to sprinters, so fingers crossed.

Sweet Mist –

• 2/1 may be getting on the skinny side here but this filly may well have won LTO but for a clear run and is now down in class and up in trip, which could both suit. The form of some of her races reads well.

• It’s an Apprentice handicap and the ‘way in’ was the form of her jockey, Connor Planas riding well, 4/10,4p in last 14 days, +45.

• The trainer’s in form also, Sean Curran 3/6,4p in the last 30 days, 2/4,3p the last 14 days. He does well with all his C6 runners around Wolves, 12/47, 19p +6 in the last 5 years. She shouldn’t be too far away here.

La Dame Blanche –

• There’s been some money for this one this morning, from 25s into 14s-16s, which hopefully could be significant, although it wouldn’t have taken much at this time of day and may well drift out, although 5 places to play with.

• The ‘way in’ was the form of the trainer/jockey in the last 14 days… 2/5,4p, +3, which could be significant, especially as the trainer had only 9 winners in the 351 days before that, so maybe a yard upturn, or a short burst which is now over! We will find out, but this team could be worth keeping an eye on in the next week or two. They’re 5/29,12p, +28 in flat handicaps together, in the last year, so is a combo to keep an eye on, with the odd decent priced one falling in also. (M Mulvany / G F Carroll)

• This filly had her first start of the season 20 days ago over 6f. She now steps back up to 10f, which she ran over at Naas on her first ever start and stayed on, 5/14, beaten 4 1/4 lengths. They must have thought she was a stayer. She won her next start dropped to 8f. Those two races produced 16 further winners and she was in and around plenty of subsequent 80+ types, some much higher, suggesting at some point this handicap mark of 74 could look workable. She didn’t run that well on her next two starts before a break, but maybe she’s just needed time. She didn’t do much on her return also but she wasn’t expected to. This testing ground is an unknown, it could be too testing, but at a big price, she looks mildly interesting and is worth noting for the future regardless, based on the strength of her first two career starts and the recent up-turn in trainer/jockey form. She should have a moderate handicap in her. I can’t say i’ve gone through the oppo with a fine toothcomb.

Coquelicot –

• One for Mr Geegeez himself here, and best of luck to Matt and his Syndicate. This mare’s had a fine season over timber, tough, versatile, knows how to win etc – a perfect syndicate horse, who now gets a spin on the flat having got a mark after LTO, where she ran over a trip too short and maybe did too much up front. She makes handicap debut here, which Anthony Honeyball is adept at over jumps (6/26,11p, +13 last 2 years) but we’ll see if the same with his flat runners!

• The ‘way in’ was the yard form, 4/14,7p last 14 days, 74% rivals beaten (a few runners at Wincanton today also) and also Andrea Atzeni, whose Notts record is rather good – 23/102, 48p, +33 , all rides here in the last 5 years, 8/29,15p, +34 in the last year. He’s 1/1 over the CD. In part that will be because of who he's ridden for and he is now a freelance, but evidently knows how to get the best of horses around here. I suspect Matt is fully aware of those stats and probably why he’s been booked.

• Of final interest is that Coquelicot ran really well around here over 14f back in October, in soft ground, a novice stakes, staying on all the way to the line having been outpaced. This 16f looks sure to suit. Given her hurdles rating in theory she’s well handicapped, for all it’s never that easy, but OR71 could look rather lenient at some point over flat staying trips.

Papa Ricco –

• Another one for some of those Ben Curtis Notts stats above (no doubt I've flagged the wrong ones!) and the ‘trainer/jockey combo’ stats were the ‘way in’ here, Simon Woods and Ben now 6/11,7p, +21 when teaming up in the last year, Ben jumping on this one for the first time.

• The yard are in decent form, 3/11,4p in the last 14 days, have winners here, can ready them after a break, do ok when moving horses significantly in distance and on handicap debut

• The horse… he’s related to a few 8-10f types and now moves up in trip from 7f when last seen, to 10f today. It COULD be the reason for a massive jolt forward here, as well as having strengthened up over the winter. I thought if he was going to look chucked in, it could well be today, given everything mentioned above. Even if 7f was ok as a 2YO, he didn’t have much chance pitched into those races, subsequent listed winner Naval Power winning at Yarmouth for example, now rated 110+. Those races packed with a few 90-100 types. This C6 handicap should be much more his level. I thought he looked interesting here. It could be he doesn’t stay, or isn’t fit enough, or wants better ground, I don’t know – but he’s got the sort of profile, in the sort of race, where he could just canter to victory with 10lb+ in hand. Maybe! But another to note moving forward from this mark.

All the best,

Josh