Friday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Oh, ha, ha, it’s 1 April and everyone is being hilarious with the false stories. Mark Johnston reports that Great British Racing are mucking about with the birthdates of all racehorses, Hayley Turner uses Twitter to say she’s getting a jumps licence, ATR says two of their presenters have had their hair cut to look like Jedward and on and on … though, interestingly, the Racing Post hasn’t printed an April Fool story this year, possibly because so many racing stories are pretty hard to believe in any case.
I quite liked the effort by Paul Nicholls through his Betfair blog, which suggested he was going to commandeer the horses trained by his former assistants, Dan Skelton and Harry Fry, in an effort to repel Willie Mullins’ assault on his title. Nicholls has such a reputation for competitiveness that quite a few people would believe him capable of such a thing, which is why he gets my respect for signing up to the joke.
Anyway, it’s lucky 1 April wasn’t yesterday or you might have thought I was kidding about tipping Hurricane Volta, the horse with no form, at Wolverhampton. In he went at 22-1, which was great fun but does rather ramp up the pressure for today.
The nearest thing I can offer to a sexy outsider is Arquebusier (3.25), an 8-1 shot for a handicap chase at Fontwell. This six-year-old has done well since joining Emma Baker from Ireland, winning two handicap hurdles and running second at Towcester.
The step up in class was too much for him at Sandown in early February but he’s had a good break and now goes over fences, a sphere in which he ran well on his only previous attempt in Ireland. There’s a chance he’ll get his own way in front and he’ll be handily treated if he can build on his hurdles form.
Roycano (3.00) is the nap at 5-2 at Newbury, Mick Easterby’s charge having been so impressive when upped to this distance last time. I also quite like Katgary (3.35) at 5-1 with first-time blinkers on, he having returned to form at this venue at this stage of last season, when he was hurdling.
In Lingfield’s opener, 7-1 might be too big about Tommy’s Secret (2.00), from an in-form yard and with a useful 7lb claimer aboard. He ended last season in good form on the all-weather and ran well on his first start of that year, too. Lingfield, though. Shudder.
Crabbies Ginger Beer tipping competition, day four
Our winners so far:
Tuesday
See Double You 15-2
Gibbstown 7-2
Nouvelli Dancer 15-2
Wednesday
Music Major 8-1
Alderley Heights 33-1
Lucy The Painter 2-1
Thursday
Mezendore 9-1
Arctic Gold 7-2
Ashford Island 5-1
And our leader is:
GForce1 +14
… who has had Nouvelli Dancer, Mezendore and Arctic Gold. Other good scores: Mulldog +11, BatmanKaisers +9, sandiuk +8.50, Geoff Staddon +8, LexLondon +5.50, jakesnake1 +5.50, Shrewdette +4.50, BearRides +4, TomMcNeil +4, maghazi +4.
For today’s thrilling climax, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 3.15 Wetherby, 3.35 Newbury, 4.55 Lingfield.
Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer, sponsors of the Grand National, have provided this week’s very generous prize; two prizes, in fact. The top two tipsters in this week’s competition will each get a pair of tickets for all three days of next week’s Grand National meeting at Aintree! How about it?
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 -9.
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 (TODAY).
For terms and conditions click here.
Good luck!
And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
