Thursday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Just in case there were any doubt about the credentials of those advising Victoria Pendleton, here’s a bit of footage of one of them that I dug up this morning. It’s Alan Hill, now a successful point-to-point trainer, riding Elmboy to win the Foxhunter Chase at the 1985 Cheltenham Festival.
This was the first Festival I watched as a new enthusiast. I remember Elmboy well and I was a bit stunned the other day, talking to Hill, when he said he’d ridden him. You wouldn’t think, talking to Hill, with his head somewhere up in the clouds miles above you, that he could ever have been a jockey. You can see in this footage that he had to fold himself up rather a lot to make it work.
Hill rode a lot of winners, including two over the National fences, so he knows whereof he speaks. “She’s riding well,” he said after Pendleton’s winner on Wednesday. “She had two good rides at the weekend, hard-work rides, she had to grab hold of them and ride them, they weren’t ever going to win a race but she got them to finish in the best possible position and I think that’s doing her good.
“We still have not got the perfect jockey and none of us are going to stand here and say that. We’ve got to get her shoulders down and all that sort of thing. There’s lots of work being done.”
Good luck to Hill and the rest of Pendleton’s people. It will add a huge amount of excitement and attention to the Festival if she can compete there. Equally, there can be few teaching teams whose work has been so scrutinised at every stage.
I went against Vazaro Delafayette (3.50) last time, his jumping having been a real concern on his reappearance, but he put that behind him to score by daylight. There was still some hesitation from him in the early stages but he got better through the race and won so easily that he must still be thrown in under a penalty today at Taunton.
He appears to be a bit of a customer and there are plenty of things that can go wrong, of course, but 15-8 appeals to me.
Similar odds are available at Ludlow about Nexius (3.40), from the Paul Nicholls yard that is firing again, with 14 winners at a 38% strike-rate in the past fortnight. Nexius flopped when the yard was going through a slower patch in October but scored on his second start over fences last month and looks well treated for today’s handicap. It is, after all, less than a year since he won a handicap hurdle by nine lengths from just a 6lb lower mark.
In the previous handicap chase, Daveron (3.05) looks overpriced at 6-1. He built on the promise of his chasing debut to score at Wincanton in January and it seems to me there is more to come from him over fences, though today’s race is certainly more competitive.
Tipping competition, day four
Our winners so far:
Monday
Planetoid 16-1
Kilbree Chief 4-1
Lord Of The Storm 16-1
Tuesday
Court Dismissed 10-1
Troika Steppes 13-8
Wintered Well 9-4
Wednesday
Tagrita 5-2
Millicent Silver 4-1
Three Graces 9-1
And our leader is …
Toptrapper +21.63
… but just barely after a winnerless Wednesday. Mulldog (+20.63), Lindsey6677 (+19.13) and 72luca (+18) pursue.
Today’s, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 3.05 Ludlow, 4.15 Ludlow, 5.55 Meydan (SP to be as published in the Racing Post).
For one final week, thanks again to 32Red bookmakers, we can offer another £25 ante-post bet on any race (for which betting is available) at this year’s Cheltenham Festival. You can see 32Red’s Cheltenham markets here.
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.
Good luck!
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And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
