Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
It might have something to do with being a bit too fresh after a fortnight’s layoff but I feel like starting today with a 20-1 shot. The Cheese Gang (3.20) is a lightly raced four-year-old who has shown his first worthwhile form since a tongue tie was fitted for his last two outings and he might be able to strike from a basement mark in a sprint handicap at Hamilton.
Two of his three siblings were winning sprinters who rated stones higher at some point in their careers and The Cheese Gang suggested he could find a race when staying on into seventh of 14 at Musselburgh last time, having blown the start. That was his handicap debut. The extra furlong here promises to help and he comes from the Otterburn yard of Susan Corbett who was winless for a year until August but now has three winners from her last 15 runners.
Earlier, Mutahaady (2.20) is the nap at odds of 9-4 that are no more than fair. I was hoping that Roys Dream would take up rather more of the market, with those two eye-catching ‘1’s next to her name, but she’s from an unfashionable yard and I suppose people have spotted that she’s no certainty to hold her form on this softer surface.
Mutahaady ran on a surface with similar give when scoring on his handicap debut at Carlisle a fortnight ago, his first start since having been gelded and switched to Karl Burke from Richard Hannon. He’s only 5lb higher and is now the mount of highly promising apprentice Clifford Lee, whose 19% strike-rate (9/47) for Burke this year is rather better than the 12% (19/163) achieved by the stable jockey, Dougie Costello, who rode last time.
At Leicester, there has been some support for A Momentofmadness (3.30), though Charlie Hills’s sprinter is still on offer at 14-1 in at least one place. He’s been a bit of a loony, improving enough for the fitting of a hood to win twice in the early summer but then failing to stay six furlongs in a hot race at the July meeting and blowing out again at Glorious Goodwood.
He has since been gelded and I’ll take a chance, at those odds, that he’ll prove more tractable today. This is another hot race but he’s only 1lb above his last winning mark and his stable have been back among the winners in the last week.
We are no longer able to continue with competitions every week, but they will still run in the biggest weeks (Cheltenham, Aintree, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and maybe one or two others, as well as the Christmas quiz).
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