Author: Joel Roberts

BRAQUEUR D’OR looks well handicapped and will appreciate good ground in the 14:20 at Ayr on Saturday, while his excellent trainer Paul Nicholls, who farms these late season races, seems very confident having saved him for the race. He was an excellent fourth in Newbury’s Ladbrokes Trophy – a top-class staying…

We should have good ground for the Scottish Champion Hurdle, a race we won a couple of year’s back by the re-opposing Ch’tibello, who carries top weight this time and looks very much in the grip of the handicapper. There must be so many well handicapped good ground horses thanks…

DAME ROSE has gone up with nothing returned twice this season but she’s just not got home on desperate heavy ground. We have spring ground at long last at Cheltenham this Friday and I fancy her to bounce back to form back against her own sex. The form of her Newbury…

We’re backing an old favourite today in ROBIN OF NAVAN, whose gets his optimum trip of nine furlongs and is proven at Newmarket. Good to soft ground should be no issue – though the nice weather may see that dry out to good by post time – and he has the…

Black Op got closest to Samcro at the Cheltenham Festival, but was a clumsy jumper and the gap from 2nd to 1st possibly flatters him. He runs over two-and-a-half miles in the Grade 1 novices’ hurdle on Aintree’s Grand National card and is up against Nicky Henderson’s much hyped On…

Sam Spinner and Wholestone re-oppose in the Aintree Stayers’ Hurdle after placing 5th and 3rd in the Cheltenham Festival equivalent, and they both have something to prove turned out again 30 days later. The ground will be similarly soggy – unseasonably so for this time of year – and those…

I’m a big fan of TOWER BRIDGE, who runs for Joseph O’Brien in the three-mile Grade 1 novices’ hurdle, the penultimate race of Aintree’s Friday card. He was a good fifth in the Albert Bartlett after clattering the last and would have hated the ground that day, so there are plenty…

I like the chances of the four-year-old STYLE DE GARDE in the Grade 1 novices’ hurdle on Aintree’s Friday card. He ran a blinder under nearly top-weight in the Fred Winter, finishing second behind Veneer Of Charm. Unfortunately, the form of that race isn’t working out so well with the winner flopping…

Aintree’s Grand National meeting kicks off on Thursday and, as ever, that means we have four consecutive Grade 1s to get stuck into. 13:45: Big Buck’s Celebration Manifesto Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) CYRNAME missed the Cheltenham Festival – where his form with JLT second Terrefort was firmly franked – and he…

I really fancy the Japanese to play a big hand on World Cup night in Dubai, and having already advised Crocosmia to land the Dubai Turf earlier on the card, I can’t not fancy the chances of MOZU KATCHAN – who narrowly beat her in Group One company in their native Japan…