Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Exeter stages a good-looking novice chase on December-y testing ground, a race in which The Listener got his first win over fences a decade ago by beating Star De Mohaison. Paul Nicholls seems to use it for his better prospects, having won it for the last two years with Caid Du Berlais and Saphir Du Rheu, both odds-on shots.
But you can get 11-8 about his Calipto (3.20) today and that looks fair to these eyes. This has horse has been a bit of a steady Eddie, showing quality without winning very often but I don’t think there was much wrong with his third place (out of four runners) at Cheltenham last month.
The winner, after all, was the very promising Garde La Victoire, while the runner-up was the under-rated Fox Norton, who got his own way in front. Calipto looked one-paced behind them but a bare two miles around Cheltenham on good to soft is not quite enough of a test for him.
An extended two miles three furlongs around Exeter is more like it, particularly on ground that is a mixture of soft and heavy, and I expect him to be finishing best of all, even though some of his rivals were highly rated over hurdles. Tea For Two is the name that jumps off the page but he comes from a yard that has yet to find its stride this season, while his jockey, Lizzie Kelly, has just a 6% strike-rate over fences at this early stage of her career.
I’ll take the 7-1 about St Dominick (1.40) in the marathon handicap chase. The eight-year-old looks very well treated since the switch to fences and desperate ground at Exeter appears to be his thing. The promising Dave Noonan gets the leg-up today.
At Sandown, going chasing should help Bilbrook Blaze (2.05) from the Philip Hobbs yard. He needed his reappearance spin over hurdles at Ascot, which was also his handicap debut. There was enough promise there to make him of interest at 5-1 but I hope to see a much better performance this time.
Tipping competition, day five
Our winners so far:
Monday
Zero Visibility 9-2
Entihaa 9-4
Steal The Scene 5-1
Tuesday
Kings Cross 8-1
Riddlestown 6-1
Illegally Blonde 100-30
Wednesday
Lightscameraction 3-1
Sir Valentino 9-2
Cyrien Star 2-1
Thursday
Aachen 7-1
Arquebusier 6-4
Renoyr 11-4
And our leader is …
William36 +24.08
… who was only 25p off the lead yesterday and then picked Aachen. Other good scores: jakesnake1 +20, melonk +16.33, moidadem +9.25 (going for one winner per day), 72luca +9, waltersobchak +8.50, lmungovan +8.08, Ellandback +7.83, GForce1 +7.33, 16heathermac01 +7.25, Topspeedspurs +5.33.
For today’s thrilling climax, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 1.40 Exeter, 2.05 Sandown, 3.10 Sandown.
This week’s prize is a copy of the Racing Post Annual 2016, featuring 208 colour pages of the best writing and photography from racing’s daily paper. The blurb promises “ the moments to treasure and unusual stories of the year, plus a look forward at the top prospects for 2016”. If you don’t win, you can buy a copy 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 -12.
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).
Good luck!
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