Biff Johnson packs a punch as Newcastle goes all-weather
With the track in its infancy, the pitfalls for punters are obvious.
That said, there is a fairly sizeable case to invest in Biff Johnson, who represents trainer Keith Dalgleish in the Best Odds Guaranteed At 188Bet Handicap over a mile and a quarter.
The four-year-old son of Dansili is an all-weather maestro, having won three of his last four starts on an artificial surface.
Yet despite having rocketed up the weights, he was clearly not finished at Wolverhampton on his last outing in February when he accounted for Icebuster by two and a quarter lengths.
With this drop in trip of no consequence - he won twice at Chelmsford three months ago over 10 furlongs - Biff Johnson has the quality to overcome another 7lb hike.
Trainers from the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland, from Scotland to Newmarket and Tipperary, are supporting the fixture that has attracted 105 runners for eight races.
Such has been the demand, that one race has been divided, with prize-money of £65,000 on offer.
“We’re looking forward to it. Everything’s up and running and ready to rock and roll for the first day,” said clerk of the course James Armstrong.
“We’re very pleased with the entries. We’re only seven short of our capacity for the whole card.
“Four of our races have reached maximum field sizes and one to the extent that we had to divide, so that’s great.
“The weather forecast looks favourable and hopefully we’ll get plenty of interested parties coming to have a look and see what it’s all about.”
Top northern trainer Richard Fahey took a team of horses for the successful trials held on the track earlier this month and he has three runners on the opening card.
“Exciting times,” said the Musley Bank handler.
“The surface is a bit slow and will take a time to bed in.
“It will probably be better in a few weeks. We certainly need an all-weather track in the north.”
Brian Ellison sends seven runners from his Norton base near Malton.
“The surface is very good. It rides really well,” he said. I wouldn’t say I was sending a strong team, but we’ve got plenty of runners there. There’s plenty of prize-money on offer.
“If I had to pick one of mine, I’d say Top Of The Glas would be my best chance.”
The sole Irish raider is Coto, owned and trained in Clonmel by Matthew Tynan, and who runs in the last race on the card, the Mobile Betting At 188Bet Fillies’ Handicap over five furlongs.
Coto is suited by a straight track, as she showed when winning at Southwell in December, and it is a similar scenario at Newcastle.
“We are running her over there, as five-furlong races in Ireland are very scarce,” said Tynan.
“She won at Southwell and prefers a straight five. She’s run at Dundalk, but doesn’t really like it there.
“She’s a small filly and there’s a bend into the straight and she gets upset with horses around her.
“She won a maiden race in Ireland as a two-year-old. We are going to breed off her, so we’re obviously trying to get as many wins onto her pedigree as we can. The more races she wins the better prices we will get for the foals.
“My son’s gone over there with her and she had a nice breeze-up on the track,” said Tynan.
“We own and train the horses so we go where we think we’ve got a suitable chance.”
