23rd-Jan-2016

I am backing Cloudy Too this morning for Saturday’s Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock.  I think that he is over-priced at 10/1.

Sue Smith’s horse ran a fine race to finish third behind Seventh Sky over two miles and seven furlongs of Saturday’s track in the Tommy Whittle Chase last month.  He travelled through that race well, and he was just starting to stay on on the outside into second place behind the ultimate winner Seventh Sky when he made a bad mistake at the fourth last fence.  That effectively ended any chance he had of winning the race, but he still kept on well to finish third.

That was much more like it from Cloudy Too.  He was a high-class chaser through his first two seasons jumping fences, he finished second (albeit a distant second) to Captain Chris in the Ascot Chase, and he won the Rowland Meyrick Chase two seasons ago off a mark of 148.  He missed most of last season, and his first three runs this term were less than encouraging, but his run in the Tommy Whittle Chase proved that he retained lots of ability.

He has been coming down the handicap as a result of his indifferent form, and he was dropped another pound for his Tommy Whittle run, somewhat surprisingly.  That leaves him on a mark of 137 now, which is 20lb lower than his peak.

He loves Haydock.  His record over fences there now reads 1363, and Sue Smith loves to target her horses at the Peter Marsh.  She has had just nine runners in the race in the last 11 years, and she has had a winner, a second and four thirds.  Also, Cloudy Too will love the heavy ground that is sure to prevail on Saturday, his record on heavy ground reads 1113, and one of those wins was at Haydock.

He will be 2lb out of the handicap if one of the top weights runs, but that is more than manageable.

CLOUDY TOO WON (ADV 10/1, SP 6/1)