Ludlow Preview: Street set for further success

Ludlow stage a competitive seven-race card today, and Talkonthestreet looks a worthy favourite to land the feature race (3.00).

The Philip Hobbs trained gelding looked a staying chaser to keep on the right side of when making all and battling on gamely to beat Royal Knight by a neck at Stratford last month.

That was the seven-year-old’s first success over the larger obstacles, and a 6lb rise in the weights is unlikely to stop him going in again.

The son of Milan was rated as high as 139 over hurdles, so his current chase rating of 122 looks more than exploitable.

Hobbs’ looks to have a big chance of landing a double on the card with August Hill in the 2m handicap hurdle (4.05).

The gelding got off the mark at the second time of asking in handicaps when landing a 2m conditional jockeys’ contest at Wincanton in good style, and gets into this afternoon’s race unpenalised.

That gives the six-year-old an outstanding chance of following-up, and providing the race doesn’t come too quickly August Hill is going to take some stopping if turning up in the same mood.

It’s no surprise to see Kingsmere turned out quickly under a 7lb penalty in the 3m handicap hurdle (3.35) following his runaway success at Cheltenham five days ago, and the gelding looks sure to take all the beating.

The nine-year-old took advantage of his lenient handicap mark over hurdles to slam Ballyculla by 10 lengths in a class 2 contest at Presbury Park, and the manner of the success suggested the son of King’s Theatre was well-ahead of the assessor.

Trained by Henry Daly, Kingsmere now takes a drop in grade into class 3 company and looks up to defying top weight in the hands of promising 3lb claimer Jake Greenall.

Selections:
1.55: Call The Cops
2.25: Topthorn
3.00: Talkonthestreet (NAP)
3.35: Kingsmere
4.05: August Hill (NB)
4.35: Nowurhurlin
5.10: Brownville