Less than two weeks to go until the best four days of racing starts. Prices have come down on some horses that The Wine Tipster had previously advised, however there is still some value there.
Selections:
March 16th, 2.40 Champion Hurdle, Medermit, advised at 16/1 now 8/1 each way.
March 16th, 2.40 Champion Hurdle, Punjabi, 9/1 each way.
March 17th, 2.40 RSA Chase, Weird Al, 11/1 each way.
March 18th, 2.40 Ryanair Chase, Barbers Shop, advised 16/1 now 6/1 each way.
March 19th, 3.20,Gold Cup, Tricky Trickster, advised 33/1 now 25/1, excluding William Hill still at 33/1 each way.
Go for it, although my mate Tim won’t, because he will settle for names related to the environment and the animal kingdom. Who will win?

Turkey Flat are based in The Barossa Valley and have an impressive take on producing well structured wines with balanced tannins and good fruit flavours. Before I start tucking into some grub their Turkey Flat Rose 2009, £9.99, made from Shiraz, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Dolcetto is dry with a lovely balance of red fruit flavours and gripping acidity.Stockists: Selfridges, Noel Young Wines Tel: 01223-566744. Now, for a couple of reds that will match up to some tannin-softening beef, try Turkey Flat Butchers Block Red 2007, £9.99, which is an impressive full bodied spicy, earthy, damson fruit flavoured combination. Stockists: Oddbins, Hailsham Cellars Tel: 01323-441212. Grenache, in my tiering of Aussie reds, is often fighting for a play-off place, but Turkey Flat Grenache 2005, £13.99 has excellent structure and complexity with dark fruit flavours and chocolate/mocha notes and is an accessible accompaniment to beef.Stockists: Selfridges, S.H. Jones Tel:01295-672296.

If the front running Nacarat races at a sensible pace then he has a good chance of repeating his 2009 success in The

3.05 Racing Post Chase at Kempton. Further afield, Silver Spinner, from the now in form Alan King stable, looks sure to take a place in The 3.30 Totesport Handicap Hurdle at Chepstow.
Selections:
3.05 Kempton, Nacarat, Win 5/1.
3.30 Chepstow, Silver Spinner, Each Way 13/2.

Picked up a bottle of Campo Viejo Tempranillo Rosado 2008, Rioja, Spain in Sainsbury’s the other night at a cost of £5 (down from £6.99 until 16th March), which is the same as you will pay for two bitter tasting uninspiring cappuccinos in some of the well known coffee chains. On a brighter, less angry-middle-aged-man-who-doesn’t-play-golf note, I have been a fan of rosados from Spain for sometime and know this wine pretty well. This is a lovely dry, aperitif rose with flavours of cherries and raspberries which is light in style and, importantly, looks and tastes like rose.

If Haydock passes a second inspection at 10.30am then look forward to The Blue Square Gold Cup Chase at 3.35 which has the first six finishes in The Welsh National contesting this. Dream Alliance won that race and although Silver by Nature and Le Beau Bai, who finished second and third respectively that day, are likely to be joint favourites.Interestingly, there hasn’t been a winning favourite in the last seven runnings of this race and with this stat in his favour Dream Alliance has the class to win again.
At the same track in The Joseph Heler Cheese Hurdle at 2.30 Souffleur ran his best race for some time at Ascot a month ago and will appreciate this 3m 1f trip.
Selections:
Souffleur, 2.30 Haydock e/way 10/1.
Dream Alliance, 3.35 Haydock win 7/1.

Muscadet, during the new world wine revolution, would have played the pithy permanent resident of the sports and social club, whose labour was no longer required. Barbera, in contrast,would have been wondering after a successful run at The Edinburgh Fringe why only a small group of intellectuals and early adopters were the minority supporters. Fast forward to the new and old worlds of wine in juxtaposition, and now both Muscadet and Barbera are in demand for work and gigging regularly. Taste the Difference Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, 2008, France, £5.99. Stockist:Sainsbury’s is dry, with lemony and creamy flavours, well made and an impressive aperitif wine. Castelvero Barbera D’ Asti, 2007,Italy, £6.99 (a third off until 16/3).Stockist: Sainsbury’s tastes how good Barbera should be with soft, appealing cherry fruit, backed by balanced acidity. An easy drinking red that demonstrates what a quality varietal

Barbera is.If you are looking for a dry refreshing, aperitif white from Italy, then the Castelvero Gavi 2008/09, £6.99, will be a third off too.

I wasn’t in favour of A.P McCoy riding Denman beforehand and sadly this proved to be true.
McCoy is always too busy as a jockey and he was pushing Denman into each fence, which upset his rhythm.
A.P should have pulled Denman up, or eased him right down because it was clear Denman wasn’t going to be able to recover from his first mistake.
So what next?
Nicholls and co took the Berbatov option and now can hardly recruit their former player Sam Thomas. Sam would try too hard and I think he is constantly trying to prove a point and is demonstrating this with his frequent use of the whip.
Therefore, following a February transfer, the new incumbent of the no 9 shirt will be B Geraghty.
Despite a jockey dilemma, most importantly Paul Nichols will have left plenty of work for Denman to do over the next few weeks and I definitely wouldn’t write Denman off. In actual fact, the 7/2 currently on offer for Denman is an attractive price for some, although I won’t be taking this because I’m a Kauto fan!

At The Wines of Australia tasting this week, the quality was there to taste across all colours and varietals. The Wine Tipster certainly found some value too and wines from Willunga 100, based in McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide are definitely worth a win bet. The Willunga 100 Viognier 2009, Australia, £8.99. Stockists: Bennets, Chipping Camden,Tel: 01286-840392, Wine Man,Streatley-on-Thames, Tel: 01635-203050.
Very clean, fresh aperitif white, light to medium bodied, well made. Equally impressive and showing what Grenache can do when not mixed with Shiraz is Willunga 100

Grenache 2006, Australia, £7.99. Stockist: Sainsbury’s.A delicious medium to full bodied blend of dark fruits, spice and mineral character.

The Wine Tipster was in Champagne last week and for the moment everything is barren. By late September, or earlier, depending on the year, there will be hundreds of grape pickers in the background collecting, we hope, ripe bunches of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. Visit the towns of Reims and Epernay in this region if you have the chance.

Inchidaly Rock is progressive, has good Cheltenham form and is my selection for the 2.35 Argento Chase tomorrow. Carruthers and Madison du Berlais both more experienced and presently joint favourites certainly don’t rock in the Bill Hailey

style at Cheltenham and instead tend to record obscure b side performances.
Selection: 2.35 Cheltenham, Inchidaly Rock, Win Bet at 3/1.