There are cases to be made for many in this field and Irish Roe looks an interesting favourite for the richest handicap hurdle of the season.
The last ten winners of this race have been aged five or six so it certainly pays to stick with the unexposed horses and I prefer a few a bigger odds with it looking very tight at the top of the market.
MISTERTON put in a career-best performance when being run down close to home in to second by Elgin in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in November. He looks to have been saved for this ever since having demonstrated great tenacity at the finish of that race to beat the likes of Old Guard and The New One.
He has won over further in his career and will need that stamina here in this testing handicap.
Misterton should be up near the pace and will handle the ground tomorrow even if it continues to deteriorate. He jumps soundly and has never finished out of the first two if you excuse his DNF at Cheltenham as a novice hurdler. He looks a great price at odds of 20/1 and I can see him running in to the places for each-way putners.
Another one with a typical profile for this race is progressive five-year-old SILVER STREAK for the in-form Evan Williams.
He ran an excellent three lengths 2/17 behind Hunters Call at Ascot In December in a slowly run race. He’s been raised three pounds for that performance to a still extremely workable mark of 133.
He had the likes of the reopposing Verdana Blue, Blue Et Rouge and Nietzsche all behind him and they are not guaranteed to reverse the form under these conditions.
Silver Streak proved he handles cut in his last race and with young Mitchell Bastyan claiming a further five pounds he can continue his progress having already won three times this campaign.
He again looks slightly overpriced for this at 18/1 and is my fancy at a bigger price towards the bottom of the weights.
0.75pts each-way Silver Streak @18/1, 15:35 Newbury
0.75pts each-way Misterton @20/1, 15:35 Newbury
Both horses trade at these prices with each-way terms of 1/5 for first six places.
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