TOWCESTER PREVIEW: Edmunds hoping for home success

Local trainer Stuart Edmunds has his string in great nick and the Tyringham handler can add a Towcester success to his recent impressive run when action kicks off in the county at 12.40pm today (Thursday).

Edmunds was in the winner’s enclosure at Leicester last Monday with Hillcrest Fire and followed up by bagging first ever a double at Market Rasen on Thursday courtesy of Molly Childers and Vinegar Hill.

With highly regarded sorts such as Classic Ben, second in a brace of bumpers so far and set to make his hurdling debut this weekend, and dual winner Theclockisticking now heading to Ascot in the run up to Christmas, the Fences Farm operation could almost be said to have sprouted wings.

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Edmunds has made three provisional entries for Towcester and reported: “We want the ground soft for all three of them and I am hoping that the drop of rain we had on Sunday night will have tilted the balance in our favour for each of them.”

Perhaps Edmunds’ best chance of a winner will be with the hardy Pine Warbler in the Agetur UK Confined Novices’ Chase although considering the race sponsor, there is bound to be plenty of interest in the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Ballyarthur.

Agetur UK is the civil engineering firm based in Brackley and which sponsors the Twiston-Davies yard via its horse racing enthusiast boss Rob Rexton. The stable also has Topofthecotswolds, in the bumper, the concluding race of the card.

Pine Warbler is an eight year-old bay gelding by Pilsudski out of Cetti’s Warbler, the dam which won a Towcester novice hurdle at odds of 100/1 in 2003. Last December he ran a respectable sixth of 15 to 40/1 winner Perfect Pirate on his only Towcester appearance to date and the pair could be in opposition again.

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Edmunds said: “It is an interesting race for horses which have not won more than one novices’ hurdle.”

Followers of local yards will also be keen to see how Free Travel performs for Ben Case in the opening novices’ hurdle. The ex Irish point to pointer has finally made it onto the track after a series of niggles while Caroline Bailey’s Holdenby North Lodge camp could be represented by Edward Elgar at 1.10pm in the Follow Us On Twitter @starspreads_bet Handicap Chase over 2m 5 1/2f.

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