Tuesday’s best bets, by Greg Wood
If the forecast is correct, the weather is going to improve steadily through the next few days, with little or no rain until Friday at the earliest, and the going at Redcar is already drying out with the description changed to good, good-to-soft in places ahead of what promises to be a glorious afternoon by the sea in north Yorkshire.
The most competitive contest on the eight-race card is the one-mile handicap, in which Altharoos (3.50) is a very fair price at around 12-1 to register his first victory of the season.
Sally Hall’s gelding has not returned to the winner’s enclosure since the second of two successes in quick succession last summer, but the second of those was recorded from a mark of 86 and he has now dropped back to 83. There was encouragement in his last start too, over this course and distance, as he travelled well and finished within three lengths of the winner in a race run in a decent time.
Fujin (3.20) could also go well at a fair price in the second division of the six-furlong sprint handicap on the same card, while at Leicester, Musdam (4.00) holds an obvious chance to go one better after a couple of slightly unfortunate runs into second place in recent weeks. Sir Michael Stoute’s colt has not done much wrong when beaten at Salisbury in July and Yarmouth last month, both times finishing runner-up to an opponent who enjoyed an ideal passage, and has not moved up in the weights since the most recent of those starts.
Stoneboat Bill (5.05) was the only runner to make any impression on the front-running Intalza at Carlisle on 22 August and the winner there has already franked the form under a penalty, while Mountain King (6.40) and Alyasan (3.10) look best on the jumps cards at Perth and Worcester respectively.
Tipping competition, day two
Our winners so far:
Monday:
Green Zone 5-1, Purple Party 9-2, Fast Act 10-1
And our leaders Day One are: wemeanyounoharm +8.50 and wiggy12 +8.50, followed by jakebuckfast +8, lcprestes +8, cerises +8, BearRides +8
… and ubikubik +3
amesstod +3
yasmin11 +3
72luca +3
FinsburyPark +2.50
DrKelso +2.50
orso +2.50
Mulldog +2.50
Harrytheactor +2.50
sandiuk +2.50
Crasivo +2.50
moidadem +2.50
elliot45 +2.50
GipsyHiller -3
LansonUproar -3
slackdad38 -3
Ormrod76 -3
Rivercity -3
diegosigod -3
23skidoo -3
millreef -3
johne5knuckle -3
Geoff Staddon -3
Renzofan -3
melonk -3
BatmanKaisers -3
donlewis -3
kingklynch -3
AshleyBrook -3
chris1623 -3
Ellandback -3
JahLion -3
William36 -3
Perry Tang -3
slowhandray -3
gregcwb -3
waltersobchak -3
TL127 -3
LexLondon -3
ID0228872 -3
Esherhammer -3
kmill68 -3
Toptrapper -3
Blitzwing -3
MrWinnersSonInLaw -3
GForce1 -3
Bacciodilupo -3
Copshaw -3
Fixxxer -3
AndieAndson -3
16heathermac01 -3
maghazi -3
Ben Leo -3
ps4999 -3
joehow -3
ID3814422 -3
Bonzodrongo -3
spudpt -3
TheVic -3
Goldkid999 -3
goodfellow1 -3
Bigboozer -3
titusisashambles -3
PHILYERBOOTS -3
Lindsey6677 -3
What a joy to see so many familiar names in this week of weeks, including some that haven’t been involved for a while. Wemeanyounoharm and wiggy12 both started strongly, pairing Green Zone with Purple Party, while four others hit Fast Act and share a close third place.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 3.50 Redcar, 4.00 Leicester, 7.40 Perth.
The prize for our final competition of 2016 is a copy of the new volume of Chasers & Hurdlers, to be published next month by Timeform. Running to 1,100 pages and retailing at £75, it is a big, beautiful record of the last jumps season, including many of the famous Timeform essays discussing the major performers and the issues raised during the winter. Evidently one of the essays suggests that some stewards are “blind … to non-triers”! If you don’t win, you can buy a copy 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.
Alas, we’re not going to be able to continue with these competitions every week and the one this week will be the last until the new year. A reorganisation of duties has meant we no longer have the time needed to keep scores while also obtaining and distributing prizes.
We will still have competitions in the biggest weeks (Cheltenham, Aintree, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and maybe one or two others, as well as the Christmas quiz). And 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, especially those of you who have been in the habit of sharing winning tips at good prices.
It’s been almost eight years since DrKelso won our very first competition, which is not a bad length of time to sustain something like this. Congratulations to all our winners since then, commiserations if you never quite got your nose in front; there will be fewer chances to break your duck now but there will still be chances, so stay with us.
Good luck!
And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
