Horse Racing: Cole pessimistic about Lincoln chance
Paul Cole, who has won three of the last five the randombet.com Lincoln Handicaps, believes he will be ‘‘struggling’’ this time.
He has three entries - last year’s winner Nimello, Inspector General and The Judge but the Whatcombe trainer is not too optimistic about his chances.
He said: ‘‘The Judge won’t get in, Nimello is a bit unlikely, it depends how he works on Wednesday, which leaves me with one who is a possible seven-furlong horse.
‘‘So P Cole winning the Lincoln this year looks slightly remote at the moment. Inspector General likes the ground but Nimello is a bit behind - not on schedule. Although it doesn’t look a great race this year we’ll be struggling to win it.’’
Hot ante-post favourite Adiemus now needs just four horses to drop out at the final declaration stage to get a run in Saturday’s race.
Adiemus has completed a four-timer on Lingfield’s Polytrack surface already this year, on Saturday landing the LittlewoodsBet Direct on 0800 329393 Winter Derby to earn a quote as short as 11-4 from the Tote for the Lincoln.
The Jeremy Noseda-trained four-year-old will carry a 5lb penalty on Saturday, which puts him on 8st 1lb before any rise in the weights.
Connections of I Cried For You have decided to let last season’s Tote Cambridgeshire winner take his chance in the traditional curtain-raiser to the Flat turf season at Doncaster.
I Cried For You finished a fine second to Adiemus on Saturday and his trainer James Given said: ‘‘You can take it he’s a confirmed runner. Some of the owners were a little concerned he needed more than a mile now but when they woke up this morning and realised he was second favourite for a £75,000 race they thought that we ought to have a go.
‘‘I don’t particularly have a problem with it. It could be the ideal race for him. He loves the hurly burly of a big field, he travels well and you don’t often get the opportunity to run in a race like this very often with a fancied chance so we decided to have a go.’’
