Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Kieren Fallon has apparently been riding in Indiana, for those of you following his progress across the States. The 50-year-old, six times a champion in the UK, had been riding in California, most recently at Del Mar, but has now headed east in hope of more turf rides.
“I’m basing myself at Churchill Downs [Kentucky],” he told the Racing Post. “There are more turf races in this area and plenty of turf horses.” Fallon’s aim is to build up connections in time for September’s Kentucky Downs meeting. He appears to have decided that he is simply too old to be adapting to dirt racing.
I’m hoping that Richard Hannon could have a bit of luck on Kempton’s Polytrack today, starting with Premier Currency (2.45), who is 7-4 to add to last week’s course and distance success, for which the juvenile carries a penalty. He has taken time to win but the look of him suggests there is plenty of progress to come.
Bay Of St Malo (3.45) should have some precocity in her, for all that she was a one-paced seventh on her recent debut at Newbury. She’s out of an unraced mare who is a half-sister to a Group One juvenile winner and another Group Two juvenile winner. She’s been backed this morning but you can still get 7-2.
Tipping competition – a new week
Congratulations to bigboozer, who swooped in to take last week’s prize in the very last race, turning around a difficult five days with My Dream Boat (33-1) for a final score of +19, beating Mai11 (+11). Congratulations bigboozer! We’ll be in touch.
This week’s prize is a copy of Value Seeker by Anthony Gibson, in which the author offers his system for identifying value bets from “statistics allied with form”, leading to picks that are “overlooked by the general betting population”. It’s the sort of book which may have insights to offer that could help your own strategy, although we certainly don’t recommend adopting anyone else’s system blindly. If you don’t win this competition, you can read more about the book and order it here.
To kick things off, we’d like your selections, please, for these races: 5.15 Kempton, 6.40 Carlisle, 6.55 Leicester.
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!
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