Tuesday’s best bets, by Greg Wood
An eight-race card on the Fibresand at Southwell may not everyone’s idea of fun when the jumps season is in full stride and Newbury’s big pre-Christmas meeting is only a few days away. But I yield to no one in my affection for the track, and a conversation with the excellent apprentice jockey Shelley Birkett yesterday – she happened to be sitting next to me at the Ladbrokes Trophy lunch – only added to it.
Birkett has ridden 10 winners from only 76 rides at Southwell over the past five seasons, more than at any track bar Lingfield, and while she confirms that the kickback from the Fibresand is deeply unpleasant – “like needles being fired at your face” – she also feels that Southwell is an easy track to ride, “because your horse either likes it or it doesn’t”, both in terms of the surface itself and also the strong pace at which many of the races are run.
For me, this makes Southwell even more of a track for specialists than Brighton or Epsom, and the best time to catch them is before their liking for the place has been fully advertised.
One candidate to catch the eye today is Gatillo (3.40) – who will be ridden, oddly enough, by Shelley’s brother, Ross – in the amateurs’ race at the end of the card. The four-year-old is still a maiden after 13 starts, but has run well on two of his three starts at Southwell including his handicap debut in December last year when he finished a two-and-a-half length second off a mark of 70.
Nine subsequent races without success have seen his mark slip all the way down to 54, but a return to Southwell last time out prompted another return to form as Gatillo finished a close third in a Class 6 event. Today’s race is, if anything, even weaker than that one, and Gatillo is a very fair price at around 4-1 to finally get off the mark.
Bo Selecta (3.10) has a similar profile – a maiden who has been knocking on the door and has run well at Southwell in the past – while Becauseshesaidso (2.00) was not suited by a step up to three-and-a-quarter miles last time out and should benefit from the drop back to two-and-a-half on the jumps card at Lingfield.
Allchilledout (3.00) probably needed his comeback run at Chepstow and travelled well until making a mistake four out, and has several runs in the book which suggest he could be a big price at around 12-1 on the same card, while Derintoher Yank (2.20) is on a good run of form and it should continue at Sedgefield.
Tips for Tuesday’s races
Southwell
12.10 Good Time Ahead 12.40 Gakku 1.10 Kaaber 1.40 Tallow 2.10 On The Warpath 2.40 Powerful Society 3.10 Bo Selecta 3.40 Gatillo (nap)
Sedgefield
12.50 Bulkov 1.20 Vinnie Lewis 1.50 Hear The Chimes 2.20 Derintoher Yank 2.50 Free Range 3.20 Bollin Line
Lingfield
1.00 It’s Got Legs 1.30 Al Shahir 2.00 Becauseshesaidso (nb) 2.30 Naranja 3.00 Allchilledout 3.30 Spiritofthegames
