Thursday cracker at Carlisle The Barry Connell silks are rarely seen at Carlisle though Buck Whaley did dead-heat in the Lanzarote Hurdle when that long established event was run there in 2006. Tomorrow though, Frascati Park makes his chasing bow in the Christmas Parties At Carlisle Racecourse Beginners' Chase under Sam Twiston Davies. A decent front running bumper and hurdle horse, Frascati Park has a good pedigree for his new vocation and he is an exciting prospect around the stiff Carlisle circuit. He won't have it all his own way in Thursday's two miler with Aikman (has jumping experience in his point-to-point days with Ian Ferguson) and Donald McCain's Our Mick (expected to improve when going up in trip) providing some of the opposition. Bold Sir Brian meanwhile, another rival, is only five but he has a great pedigree being a Brian Boru gelding out of 1998 Galway Hurdle heroine, Black Queen. His trainer Lucinda Russell is looking forward to the Grade 2 Premier Kelso Hurdle winner this term, saying that he now looks like a tank having done tremendously well filling out during the summer.
