Grade 1 winning hurdler made winning start to life over fences at Exeter
Ballyoptic has been installed as the new ante-post favourite for the four mile contest in March off the back of a 13 length victory at Exeter on Tuesday. Sent off second favourite of the five runner field, the seven-year-old set the pace from the off under Sam Twiston-Davies before pulling clear in impressive fashion three from home and register a notable victory.
Ballyoptic wins the https://t.co/mb7tmo3yiR Novices' Chase in style for trainer @NigelTwistonDav, and it's a treble for @samtwiston pic.twitter.com/BoQg36uBgI
— Exeter Racecourse (@ExeterRaces) November 7, 2017
Economical and well measured at his fences, it was hard not to be impressed with the way he jumped on his first start over fences. Whilst clearly talented over hurdles, he was often let down by his jumping but it seems the extra respect he afforded the larger obstacles helped him jump with much more accuarcy and he looked better and better the further he went.
Bookmakers were clearly impressed by what they saw, cutting him for the National Hunt Chase in March to as short as 12/1 in places from 20’s pre-race. He was also shortened for the RSA with bookies slashing the 25/1 on offer to just 12/1 in places.
Oddschecker punters also liked what they saw with 63% of all ante-post bets since the race finished on the Twiston-Davies runner.
