11am Salsfify back in the frame for Festival Foxhunter
Tony Paley: Salsify, the 2013 Foxhunter Chase winner at the Cheltenham Festival, could be back at the season’s premier jumps meeting in March.
The Rodger Sweeney-trained 10-year-old has been out of action since late 2013 because of injury but has been earmarked for an imminent comeback.
Salsify is due to contest the Raymond Smith Memorial Hunters Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday week, after which he will be geared up for the Foxhunter.
County Cork-based Sweeney said: “It’s been a long road with him, but he’s fit and well at the moment and has been working well. He’s had a long time off so we have to be very careful with him. That [Cheltenham] is still the hope, but we will probably run him on Sunday week on Hennessy day at Leopardstown.”
Thursday’s best bets, by Tony Paley
When the going gets heavy, Venetia Williams gets going. The trainer has an excellent record at this time of year when the mud is flying and Take The Mick (2.20) is expected to take a deal of beating in the three-mile handicap chase at Towcester today. He returned to form with a hard-fought win at Wincanton last week and should go close under a 7lb penalty on a demanding track that should suit him admirably.
Paul Nicholls’ Ptit Zig is one of his live Cheltenham Festival candidates and the half-brother to that stable star, Earthmoves (3.40), looks to have an excellent opportunity at Wincanton. He has good prospects of turning the tables on Blue Buttons this time and has plenty of scope for improvement given his light career campaign to date.
The most valuable race at Southwell has followed the familiar pattern of attracting the smallest field, but the fact that there is a little bit more money in the pot does mean that the runners have some quality and consistency to their form and all six go to post with a chance.
Astra Hall is the only one of the half-dozen without a win on Fibresand and the outsider of the field as a result, while at the other end of the market, Luv U Whatever is going for a hat-trick under a penalty and is currently trading at around 9-4. Ten stone two is quite a lump of weight to heft around 12 furlongs at Southwell, though, and Royal Marskell (3.00) is the opponent that may have been underestimated, having finished behind both Luv U Whatever and The Lock Master, who is also in today’s field, on New Year’s Day.
That race was over a furlong shorter, however, and did not seem to unfold in Royal Marskell’s favour from the moment the stalls opened. A return to the form of his previous run, when successful over today’s track and trip in a good time, would make him a very live contender and the 7-1 on offer is a decent price.
Elsewhere on the card, Bainne (4.00) has looked ready for the step up to a mile in his recent starts, while on the evening card at Wolverhampton, Time And Place (7.40) can make a successful switch to Tapeta following a career-best run on the Polytrack at Kempton Park last time.
BoyleSports Tipping Competition, day four
Our winners so far:
Monday
Bush Beauty 12-1
Until Winning 2-1
Brunette’sonly 100-30
Tuesday
Sun Wild Life 7-2
Stradater 9-1
Winning Spark 8-1
Wednesday
Algernon Pazham 3-1
Trojan Rocket 20-1
Misu Pete 25-1
And our leader is. . .
Templegate +26
. . . being the only one to find Misu Pete. Three folk managed to pick out Trojan Rocket and they fill the next three places: diegoisgod +16.50, GForce1 +16.33, Ellandback +12.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 3.10 Wincanton, 3.40 Wincanton, 5.40 Meydan. For the Meydan race, the odds recorded by the Racing Post as SP will be used for our purposes.
This week’s prize, kindly offered by those sporting fellas at BoyleSports, is a £25 ante-post bet on a race of your choosing at the Cheltenham Festival (provided it’s one of the 15 on which BoyleSports are taking bets just now). The bet must be placed by Saturday 7 February.
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 -9.
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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And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
