11am Redvers convinced Elm Park will figure in the Derby finish
Tony Paley: David Redvers, racing manager to Elm Park’s owners Qatar Racing, is convinced the colt will figure in the Derby finish on 6 June after finishing third in his reappearance run in the Dante at York last week.
“I think, as [trainer] Andrew [Balding] would describe it, it was the perfect prep run. He went there without a run and put on loads of weight over the winter, he’s really filled his frame,” Redvers told At The Races.
“He was a bit burly and getting a bit lazy, as we could see from that piece of work at Newbury, and it will have blown the cobwebs away. Of all the horses to take out of the race, obviously the winner was impressive but he’d had the benefit of a run, our fella will come on an awful lot for it.
“I think going further will definitely help him but the only worry would be if it was rattling fast, how he would come down the hill? Our view would very much be that a mile and a half has his name all over it. If we can just get good ground, I’m sure he’ll be there or thereabouts.
“Epsom is the ultimate test of a racehorse. You cannot be certain how they’ll handle it until they come round Tattenham Corner. I’ve never seen a more obvious case of a horse training on just looking at him, last year he was a shell of a horse but he’s really filled out.”
Tuesday’s best bets, by Greg Wood
Thirty-eight races at five different tracks is quite a menu to pick from, and at the time of writing, just two races at the three Flat meetings on turf have fewer than eight runners. And this on a fairly humdrum Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps that crisis that has been raging in British racing for, well, as long as anyone can remember is not quite the existential threat that some would have it to be.
It could be pointed out too that the meeting punters may find the easiest to overlook is the all-weather card at Chelmsford City this evening, where four of the seven races have not reached the magic figure of eight runners which gets the betting public’s attention. Instead, the best races are at Newcastle, where both the 10-furlong and seven-furlong handicaps deserve close inspection.
The two races have different shapes, with Taghreeb (3.50) a clear favourite for the longer event, and rightly so. Brian Meehan’s lightly-raced four-year-old is unbeaten in two starts, but did not look the obvious winner when he started to come under pressure a furlong from home over a mile at Redcar last time out. He stayed on strongly to get up in the closing stages, however, and should find enough improvement for the experience and today’s step up in trip to overcome a 5lb rise in the weights.
By contrast, there are currently three co-favourites for the seven-furlong contest, with Sir Robert Cheval (4.50) worth an interest at around 4-1 now that he is back at his ideal trip of seven furlongs. Marco Botti’s gelding put up a couple of strong performances off today’s mark to finish second at both Ascot and Doncaster last autumn, and was a respectable sixth on his seasonal debut over six earlier this month. With that run behind him, he should be up to winning here.
Rowlestone Lass (3.00) put up some solid performances on the all-weather over the winter and catches the eye at around 8-1 for the staying handicap at Nottingham, while Unison (4.10) and Sergeant Dick (7.00) are the picks on the cards at Chepstown and Newton Abbot respectively.
Tipping competition, day two
Our winners so far:
Monday
Newera 7-2
Third Time Lucky 7-4
Mutatis Mutandis 6-1
And our leader is. . .
GForce1 +6.75
... who had Mutatis Mutandis AND Third Time Lucky. Next comes asem24 (+4.25), who had Newera AND Third Time Lucky.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 4.50 Newcastle, 5.10 Chepstow, 5.35 Nottingham.
This week’s prize is a pair of tickets to the Duchess Stand on Derby day, generously offered by Epsom. If you don’t win, you can buy tickets to this most prestigious of racing events 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 -3.
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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