Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
All right, fine. I shall join you all in your Thistlecrack Camp. He was much more impressive yesterday than I thought he could be at the first attempt over fences, albeit against modest opposition. Well done Tom, Colin, Joe and all the others.
Significant tests remain, of course. He hasn’t jumped fences around Cheltenham, which not all horses can manage in comfort. He hasn’t taken on horses of a broadly similar quality over fences. He hasn’t jumped fences in the middle of a group of horses; perhaps he never will.
The way he bulled his way forward through the Chepstow race was very reminiscent of another high-profile chaser. Thistlecrack versus Coneygree, can you imagine it? If they took each other on up front, would that set things up for the hold-up types or would the others give up the unequal struggle of keeping in touch?
Let’s hope we get to see it one day. In the meantime, we have Nottingham. Division One of the staying handicap there contains several likely types but Coeur De Lion (3.20) is the one who grabs my attention at 5-1.
Bred to stay this far and maybe another couple of circuits beyond that, this three-year-old showed lots of promise on his handicap debut a fortnight ago, when stepped up to this sort of distance for the first time. He stayed on nicely despite being short of room and today’s easier surface will help.
Hollie Doyle, who is having a good month and a good year, rides for the first time.
The nap is Unsuspected Girl (3.30), a 3-1 shot who can’t seem to run a bad race at Chelmsford. She’s two from three there and was a bit unlucky to be beaten three parts of a length last time.
In similar vein, Gulland Rock (7.45) is better on the all-weather than the turf on which he was beaten last time. Previously, he won over this course and distance and, although it could be said that he got a soft lead, his overall record suggests he’ll go close again at 8-1.
We are no longer able to continue with competitions every week, but they will still run in the biggest weeks (Cheltenham, Aintree, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and maybe one or two others, as well as the Christmas quiz).
We’ll still have a Talking Horses each day for tips, analysis and news, so we very much hope you’ll join us to chew over whatever racing happens to be going on and post your tips or racing-related comments below.
