Talking Horses: The best bets and all the latest racing news
11.35am Cheltenham Saturday meeting faces crucial 24 hours
Tony Paley: The next 24 hours are crucial in Cheltenham’s bid to stage Saturday’s Festival Trials Day meeting. Officials are hopeful the card, which will also feature the rescheduled Victor Chandler Chase from Ascot, will go ahead but are hoping the forecast snow for Tuesday night is light.
A slight thaw on Monday enabled clerk of the course Simon Claisse to do some early preparatory work. More needs to be done, however, and he expects to be in a better position to assess the situation on Wednesday morning. Any contingency plans to save the fixture and possibly move the card to another day, which Chris Cook reported here, will then be discussed further if necessary.
“We remain hopeful and are crossing everything,” said Claisse. “We had a little bit of a thaw yesterday which enabled us to get a little lightweight tractor on the covers with a brush to brush the remaining snow off. That is good news.
“We are still forecast one to two centimetres of snow tonight. We will cope with the lower end, we may have a big challenge if we get the other end because there aren’t any real positive signs of thawing temperatures until Saturday. The crucial time for us is the next 24 hours as to what might further come out of the sky.
“We’ve been in discussion with the authorities and Jockey Club Racecourses since Friday, but we’ve always said in terms of timings and decisions, we need to get through the next snow event which is forecast for tonight. “Then we will be in a better position to see what are prospects are.”
Tuesday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Impressively, we’ve had a couple of hours this morning without the loss of any further jump meetings. That might change this afternoon, when there will be a 1pm inspection at Exeter, due to race tomorrow, though the good news from local officials is that persistent rain has reduced the snow to an inch in depth! Come racing!
Ayr, also due to race tomorrow, have managed to postpone the evil hour of their inspection until 7.30am on raceday. There’s no snow on the track but “a sharp frost” is forecast for tonight. If only it were a blunt frost, eh?
Today’s two all-weather cards have survived, which is what passes for good news in our sport just now. Of course, one of those cards is at Lingfield, where, as has been long established in this place, every finish comes with extra lashings of heartbreak for punters at no extra cost.
I’m hoping that will be true of the mile handicap, in which Mubtadi is an untempting favourite at 11-8 to beat 10 rivals. This is a beast who has won one of his last 17 races but, of course, it was last time out, over this course and distance and he’s unpenalised, which gets people very excited.
Any winning form is a fair cause for excitement in these races but what Mubtadi won was an apprentice race and the form of those races is not always to be relied upon. Thomas Brown (7) keeps the ride here, which is fair enough, but he’s up against veteran pros rather than just claimers this time.
There’s value somewhere in this race and I think it might be in the double-figure odds available about Sudden Wish (2.25), from the David Evans yard that is hot to the touch just now (eight winners from 33 in the past fortnight). Her sole victory to date came around here on her handicap debut at this time last year, since when she has continued to run well from around today’s handicap mark.
She led until the last 50 yards of the race here just after Christmas that was won by Brown Pete before flopping at Kempton, a run that I’m choosing to ignore on the grounds that Kempton and Lingfield form is often not interchangeable. It wouldn’t take much for her to land one of these races and a first-time visor may make the difference. She’s certainly worth a spin at the current 14-1 on Betfair.
In the following race, the lightly raced Flying Tempo (3.00) is fairly priced at 5-2 to follow up his Wolverhampton win. His strong finish that day suggests this drop back in trip of half a furlong is not necessarily a good idea but Lingfield races so often go to the strongest finisher and there may be a strong pace here, with both Dream About You and Maypole Joe in the field.
The pick at Wolverhampton may be Precision Five (5.10) in the last, also at around 5-2. She has consistently run well since being switched to handicaps, landing two of them, including her last run, for which she is only up 4lb.
Tipping competition, day two
No one picked Monzino (12-1), one of our winners on day one, but then he’d been beaten 10 lengths or more in his previous seven starts and was a first success on the Flat for jockey Gerard Galligan, so you’re excused. The lead is shared by the seven who found Rapid Heat Lad (13-2), followed by the seven who had Noble Jack (11-4). Nobody had both.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 2.25 Lingfield, 3.00 Lingfield, 4.40 Wolverhampton.
This week, we offer you a second chance to win a copy of the DVD ‘Frankel, the official story’, featuring all of his 14 races and exclusive interviews with Sir Henry Cecil and Tom Queally. Since last week’s competition began, Frankel has been named as the highest-rated Flat horse since the present rating system began in 1977! If you don’t win, you can buy the DVD here.
As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today but you will start on -3.
In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.
For terms and conditions click here.
Good luck!
Standings after day one
NYStadium +4.50
GForce1 +4.50
john987 +4.50
Copshaw +4.50
Lameduck +4.50
Harrytheactor +4.50
moidadem +4.50
William36 +0.75
TL127 +0.75
ToffeeDan1 +0.75
Lindsey6677 +0.75
TwoChainz +0.75
iainqos +0.75
factormax +0.75
Ellandback -3
melonk -3
paudi051 -3
CluelessWhisper -3
glavintoby -3
RoryD -3
JahLion -3
Ormrod76 -3
ps4999 -3
jaygee1 -3
shears39 -3
Sportingbest -3
waltersobchak -3
Blitzwing -3
millreef -3
Thewrongtree -3
72luca -3
slackdad38 -3
Viejo -3
JimmyDeuce -3
tanias -3
Flossnme -3
chiefhk -3
SmokingGun1 -3
Mulldog -3
Yossarian24 -3
MISTERCHESTER -3
hegman -3
chris1623 -3
diegoisgod -3
BearRides -3
orso -3
Tampabay -3
wiggy12 -3
Shrewdette -3
Toptrapper -3
DrSativa -3
carl31 -3
paragoncup -3
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