Monday’s best bets, by Chris Corrigan
After a quiet start to the 2016 season, Roger Charlton’s Beckhampton yard has hit a hot streak in the past week and a half. Of his 20 winners on turf this year, ten have have come in the past 11 days.
His three-year-olds have been particularly to the fore and Chester Street (7.30) has strong prospects of keeping the momentum going at Windsor.
The selection ran in a Class Three handicap over nine furlongs at Sandown in the second week of June, making the running before attempting to stretch his field a long way from home. It proved too ambitious a ploy and he eventually finished down the field. Down to Class Four, a far less competitive race and a slightly shorter trip should see George Baker’s in a far better light this evening.
At Ayr’s afternoon meeting, Heir Of Excitement (2.00) can strike for Kevin Ryan, another trainer whose stable is bang in form. The weather forecast suggests the track will remain testing, so this two-year-old race can go Shane Gray’s mount. The partnership scored on soft ground over course and distance a fortnight ago.
Any market support for Spring Steel (2.45) at Newton Abbot could be interesting. The seven-year-old has been pulled up on his last five runs – and his chances would appear hopeless using that as a guide. He has plunged down the weights, however, and performed well at big odds over two miles on fast ground in August last year. He has not had those conditions since.
Tipping competition - a new week starts tomorrow
Congratulations to ID3814422, who won last week’s competition on a final score of +21, despite a winnerless Friday. Almost everyone else also had a winnerless Friday! But ID3814422 did, very sportingly, let us know during the week that he couldn’t use the tickets as he will be promming it up this weekend, so the two Saturday tickets for Goodwood will now be offered to pkhughesy92, who finished second on +19.
It’s Glorious Goodwood week and, as has become our custom, we’ll be offering two prizes: one for the tipster that does best and one for the tipster that does worst. It’s a way of recognising what a tricky week this is for punters and how things can go badly wrong for any of us. Betfair have very kindly offered a £50 bet for each of our two winners.
We’ll include four races each day at Goodwood, from Tuesday to Friday. The Best Tipster, as usual, will be whoever gets the best notional return to level stakes on each selection. The winning Worst Tipster will be drawn from those of you who pick a loser in all 16 of our chosen races, with the prize going to whichever of those had the shortest average SP among their 16 selections.
If you feel like getting some homework done, we will start tomorrow with these races: 3.10 Goodwood, 3.45 Goodwood, 4.20 Goodwood, 5.30 Goodwood. You don’t have to post your tips until tomorrow but if you post them today, I’ll copy them on to tomorrow’s Talking Horses.
You don’t have to declare which prize you’re trying to win. If you try to pick winners tomorrow but come up with four losers, you’ll have to decide whether you want to keep pursuing the Best Tipster prize or if it might be better to go all out for losers from that point. Remember: just one winner disqualifies you from the Worst Tipster prize.
In the past, one entrant declared for the Worst Tipster prize, only to hit three winners that day. You’ll save face if you keep your intentions to yourself, but it will certainly be more entertaining if you let us know in advance...
Good luck!
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