McCoy can break the silence for ladies at Wetherby

It is the Yorkshire Post’s Ladies’ Day at Wetherby today, with plenty on offer for those with an eye for form lines and fashion trends in equal measure.

Champion jockey AP McCoy makes the trip north and teams up with boss JP McManus on the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Breaking Silence in the ‘Hatmakers Of The North’ Handicap Chase.

The 10-year-old has been a regular in the hunter chase arena since arriving from Ireland at the beginning of 2010 and picked up his third prize on these shores when justifying a short price at Southwell last month.

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This task should require more from him but it is not the most hotly-contested handicap and he can bridge the gap.

McCoy partners Royal Max for Ian Williams in the kellyewing.com Best Dressed Lady Handicap Hurdle but the course and distance winner will have to be at the top of his game to see off Film Festival.

Trained at Norton by Brian Ellison, the gelding is better known as a chaser these days and even ran in the Grand Annual at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

He came up short there, and twice subsequently, but reverts to timber on a comparitively lenient rating and can capitalise.

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Ellison’s Dontpaytheferryman will have his supporters in the Life & Style Novices’ Chase, but he hardly set the world alight in two attempts at fences around this time last year and he may need a rest now after a busy, yet profitable, winter on the all-weather.

In contrast, Montoya’s Son was having just his third start of the year when running out an emphatic winner at Carlisle recently, and Howard Johnson’s charge is on a firm upward curve.

On Ladies’ Day, it would be fitting if Pam Sly and Gina Andrews could get on the scoresheet and they combine with Bedizen, who bids to atone for a narrow Fakenham defeat in the Yorkshire Post Magazine Selling Hurdle.

Sly and Andrews are then represented by arguably the banker bet of the afternoon, when Chicklemix goes to post for the Britain’s Best Deals At Jct6000.co.uk Novices’ Hurdle.

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Andrews got a good tune out of the grey mare to claim a handicap at Fakenham at the end of April and this event is not as taxing.

Nigel Twiston-Davies boasts a decent strike-rate at the course and has booked Gemma Gracey-Davison to ride Body Gold in the opening totepool Lady Riders’ Handicap Hurdle, while David Bourton’s Anaya has plenty of experience to draw upon in the Party In The Paddock On 2nd June Mares’ Maiden Hurdle.

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