General bids to strike again – and again – at favourite track

sunbets.co.uk Download The App Handicap | 1m | ATR

Having recently scored an emotional triumph at Southwell, General Tufto returns for a lap of honour on Sunday – with another pencilled in for later in the week.

The remarkable course specialist may just have turned 12 but is set to have two runs in four days at a track where he marked his 100th visit with a victory just before Christmas.

First, General Tufto has his fifth crack at the closing 46-60 mile handicap on the New Year's Day card, a race he won in 2014 and finished second in the following year. He was fifth in 2016.

Then the plan is for Joey Haynes's mount to return for a similar event on Thursday, with Charles Smith stressing that racing "takes absolutely nothing" out of a gelding who won twice in three days at Southwell in 2009.

"You wouldn't have known he had a race after his last run," said the trainer. "He didn't lose a pound in weight and I rode him out on Christmas Eve and he nearly threw me off."

Assessing General Tufto's chances of landing a 16th course victory on Sunday, Smith said: "He went up 5lb, which was quite fair, and we hope he should run well again.

"He's as well as he was before his last run so we're very hopeful, but you can't really predict the horse."