Alex Hammond Racing Blog

Sky Sports Racing presenter Alex Hammond sides with Altior over Cyrname at Ascot this weekend and also fancies Lostintranslation to land the Betfair Chase.

Cheltenham's November Meeting has a history of producing Festival winners in March… what was your principal eyecatcher from last weekend?

I think the novice hurdle won by Thyme Hill was strong.

His bumper form is excellent (third in the Champion Bumper) and unsurprisingly is working out very well. Trainer Philip Hobbs said he wasn't the most robust horse last season and couldn't take too much racing, but with another summer behind him, he'll hopefully be maturing and getting stronger, albeit he's not the biggest.

The Challow Hurdle at Newbury is his next target.

Followers of this blog will know that I K Brunel is a horse I like a lot, but he finished last in the same Cheltenham race on Saturday. His trainer Olly Murphy was our studio guest on Monday Night Racing this week and he told us the run was too bad to be true, so hopefully he can bounce back and show him what he feels he's capable of next time out. Murphy wondered if the really testing conditions were a factor and I'd bet we'll see a different horse next time he runs.

With regards ante-post betting, Thyme Hill is now a 12/1 shot for the Ballymore and 14s for the Albert Bartlett with Sky Bet. For the record, I K Brunel is a whopping 40/1 for the Ballymore...

Who do fancy in the Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday?

It's hard to get past Bristol De Mai and his price reflects that, with Sky Bet making him their 6/5 favourite at the time of writing. Nigel Twiston-Davies' bold grey has won this for the past two years and the configuration of Haydock's chase course nowadays suits him down to the ground (he's won all four starts there).

Bristol won this on his seasonal debut 12 months ago, so a lack of a recent run shouldn't be an issue. Having said all that, I'm a big fan of Lostintranslation. I remember speaking with assistant trainer Joe Tizzard on Sky Sports Racing last winter and his positivity streamed through the phone line like a laser beam when he spoke about this lad.

He lived up to expectations too, enjoying a cracking novice season which culminated with a second place to Defi Du Seuil in the JLT and a win in the Mildmay Novices' Chase at Aintree.

Now he has to take on the big boys and I hope he can successfully make that transition. He has the benefit of a run under his belt with a win over an inadequate two and a half miles at Carlisle at the beginning of this month, so hopefully no excuses.

He's 6/4 second-favourite with Sky Bet for Saturday's Grade 1. I backed him each-way for the Gold Cup back in April at 16s and I'm hoping it was a shrewd investment - he's now as short as 7/1 for the Cheltenham showpiece.

Sky Sports Racing are at Ascot for the biggest jumps clash in years - how do you see Altior versus Cyrname this weekend?

I think this could be the race of the season, the most significant clash we see in 2019/20 and could also determine the future of the most talented two-mile chaser we've seen for some time.

Two miles and five furlongs is the longest distance Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Arkle and dual Champion Chase winner Altior will have tackled in his exemplary career and he's doing that on Saturday with races like the King George in mind.

This will be an informative sortie to see where Nicky Henderson goes from here and given conditions are right up Cyrname's street, it won't be a straightforward task.

Top horses can often be reasonably flexible where trip is concerned, remember Kauto Star chucked a couple of Tingle Creeks (over two miles) into his prize pot whilst in the midst of grinding down his opposition over three miles and more.

Altior has exceptional speed, though, and if he can sustain his effort over this trip and hopefully three miles, he's going to go down in history as one of the greatest of all time.

I hope he wins, as we all love to see special performances from our champions. That's no disrespect to Cyrname, after all he's (inexplicably) rated a pound higher than Altior on official ratings.

Ratings gurus Timeform have Altior on 180 and Cyrname at 173+, which makes much more sense to me.

As racing fans, we are the winners - just sit back and enjoy what should be an epic duel. Sky Bet have Altior at 8/13 and Cyrname 5/4 second favourite.