Today’s best bets
The jumps campaign is slowly coming to life and Kempton’s card this afternoon has several interesting names in action, not least Silviniaco Conti, whose last visit to this track was on 26 December last year, when he won the King George VI Chase for the second year running.
Silviniaco Conti will not be jumping around the chase course, however, but skipping over timber on his first start over hurdles since February 2011. Paul Nicholls, the nine-year-old’s trainer, feels he needs a race to get him straight for the Betfair Chase later this month, a race that will kick off the chase for a £1m bonus, available to a horse that can win at Haydock and then follow up in both the King George and the Gold Cup.
Nicholls made it clear on Sunday that Silviniaco Conti has had a minor setback over the summer and will improve for the run on Monday and he is not even favourite for his race, a qualifier for the Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham Festival which will be staged over two miles and five furlongs.
Silviniaco Conti was quoted as quite short odds for the Champion Hurdle in the early stages of his career but, in the circumstances, Brother Tedd (2.30), from the in-form yard of Philip Hobbs, may well be the safest option.
Smad Place (3.05) was placed several times at Grade One level over hurdles, including in the World Hurdle in March 2013, and was then second in the RSA Chase at the Festival meeting the following year. He was eighth behind Coneygree in last season’s Gold Cup and is favoured by the weights in Kempton’s graduation chase, a fascinating contest in which all five starters go to post with a chance.
Billy Merriott (2.00) was alongside the leader and still going well when he unseated his rider at the second-last, also at Kempton, last time out. That was his chasing debut and he looks likely to be yet another serial improver from the Harry Fry stable.
Here’s Herbie (2.40) and The Cider Maker (2.55) are the best bets on the cards at Ludlow and Plumpton respectively.
Tipping competition – a new week
Congratulations to waltersobchak, who stole last week’s competition from under the nose of AshleyBrook by picking Wakanda (11-4) on Friday, finishing on +28.75 against +27.50 for the runner-up.
This week’s prize is a copy of Beckhampton, The Men And Horses of a Great Racing Stable, Paul Mathieu’s newly published book about the Wiltshire stable now home to Roger Charlton, which has housed some 40 Classic winners in its long and successful history. If you don’t win, you can buy a copy here.
To kick things off, we’d like your selections, please, for these races: 2.30 Kempton, 2.40 Ludlow, 4.00 Plumpton.
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.
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!
And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
