Steel City and Roxyfet Two to Follow at Catterick

Catterick host their final national hunt meeting of the season on Wednesday, and they sign off with a seven race card. Like many other racecourses, they have struggled to attract large fields due to the unseasonably fast ground we have at the moment, although with rain forecast for Wednesday, we could see it ease a little before and during racing. There are two horses that stand out on the seven race card as ones to follow, and the first of them is in the very first race on the card.

This is bargain basement stuff really, a class 5 selling hurdle and we are not talking about superstars here. There is a horse in the race who has shown good course form before, looks weighted to win and perhaps more importantly, he knows how to win. That is Steel City, and although now in the latter stages of his career, the 11 year old appears to have a great chance on Wednesday.

He was pulled up last time out, but that was over fences, something he has shown a dislike to before, and that race can go down as an experiment gone wrong. He returns to hurdles today, where he looks a lot more at home. He ran well over the smaller obstacles at this course two runs ago, finishing third of seven runners. That was off two pounds lower than he runs off today, but he was only beaten by two lengths and that was a far better race than the one he faces today.

He is thereabouts on a winning mark for a normal race based on that run, let alone a race as poor as this. Go back to this time last year and he landed a nice gamble at the North Yorkshire venue, another race that was much better than this and that win came by half a length, off two pounds lower that what he will run off here.

He is weighted to go close, this race is a very poor one, and with his course form I really fancy a big showing from Steel City on Wednesday afternoon at Catterick.

The second horse to follow on the day is Roxyfet, a horse who won last week and comes back looking to double up this week. Although he has gone up four pound for that success, he is still well handicapped on some of his old form, and is clearly in good heart at the moment. He doesn’t mind the slightly quicker ground than normal, which he took in his stride last week and can do so again here.

He is a big price in this race, and I think he has been underestimated a little. I respect the Venetia Williams horse at the top, which looks likely to go off as favourite, but Roxyfet appears to have a great each way chance at a far bigger price. Go back 12 months and this horse ran a couple of nice races off a mark of 105, tomorrow he is off 94. That is four pound higher than last week, but based on old form, he is still well in here.

While Steel City is a strong fancy to win the race he is in, I like Roxyfet as a bigger priced outsider in his race and those are the two horses to follow at Catterick on Wednesday afternoon for their final national hunt meeting of the season.