Thursday’s Ryanair Chase looks brilliant, with so many holding live chances. The first and easiest to rule out on price grounds would be last year’s Arkle winner Footpad, who has been poor this season and has no right to be favourite for this race. His stablemate Un De Sceaux is…
1pt win Topofthegame @7/2, 14:10 Cheltenham, Wednesday
Wednesday’s RSA Chase is one of the races of the week with the big Irish hope Delta Work heading the market from Santini, Topofthegame and On The Blind Side. I like last year’s Pertemps Final winner Delta Work a lot as he’s progressed into a Grade 1 horse in subsequent…
1pt each-way Dancing On My Own @14/1, 1pt each-way Cracking Smart @12/1, 14:50 Cheltenham, Wednesday
Day two; the Coral Cup; 26 runners; two bets. DANCING ON MY OWN is the first name on the list, stepping up in trip and representing the same form-line that provided Tuesday’s runaway Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Klassical Dream. Collateral form with that horse, which surely ran to a mark bordering…
1pt each-way Band Of Outlaws @7/1, 1pt each-way Star Max @16/1, 16:50 Cheltenham, Wednesday
The Fred Winter is normally run at a frenetic gallop in what can often be an untidy looking race. Paul Nicholls and Gordon Elliot have dominated proceedings in recent seasons and the latter holds a strong hand this year with the Paul Nicholls fancy, Friend Or Foe, missing out at…
1pt win Mulcahys Hill @33/1, 17:30 Cheltenham, Saturday
Tuesday’s closing race, the four-mile National Hunt Chase, can go to lively 33/1 outsider MULCAHYS HILL for Warren Greatrex. Last seen over two-and-a-half miles in Grade 1 company at Sandown, which was his first run back after a wind op that ‘transformed him at home’, we shouldn’t take that form literally as…
1pt each-way Riders Onthe Storm @8/1, 1pt each-way Highway One O One @12/1, 16:50 Cheltenham, Tuesday
The first edition of handicap tips for the Cheltenham Festival this year features the Close Brothers Novices Handicap Chase on Champion Day. Last year’s winner Mister Whitaker runs in the Ultima earlier on the card and he came into this carrying bottom-weight of 11st 2lbs last season. Clearly he was…
1pt each-way Aramon @14/1, 13:30 Tuesday, Cheltenham
Final declarations are in for the curtain raising Supreme Novices’ Hurdle of Cheltenham Festival 2019, due off Tuesday at 1:30, and the predictable market mover is Ruby Walsh’s choice Klassical Dream. I wouldn’t rule out him going off favourite as punters love that combo in the Supreme, but that ship…
1pt win Abolitionist @4/1, 14:05 Newbury, Saturday
Nobody should feel ashamed for wanting Cheltenham to arrive now and on the penultimate weekend before the festival there are plenty of horses being kept away from the action. There’s a nice looking Veterans’ Handicap Chase over at Newbury though with plenty of old favourites on show again like The…
1pt each-way Kimberlite Candy @10/1, 1pt each-way Ange Des Malberaux @12/1, 14:40 Newcastle, Saturday
The four-mile Eider Handicap Chase at Newcastle is normally run in an absolute bog. But not this year. This unseasonably quick ground will favour the stronger travelling types over the plodders, and that rules out quite a few who would have preferred more juice in the ground. The current jolly…
1pt each-way Song For Someone @12/1, 14:25 Kempton, Saturday
Lots of good racing at Kempton on Saturday but the cards are real head scratchers. In the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle there’s a scarcity of hurdles experience in the race, which is why I’m backing the super-slick jumping SONG FOR SOMEONE to make his experience count. He seems to have improved since being gelded…