Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
I won’t hear a word against low-value jumps racing but this is one of those days to tread carefully, with specialist heavy going at Lingfield and Sedgefield being a home for tricky racing whatever the ground. So here’s just a couple of half-fancies at fair prices.
Chase The Spud (3.00) hardly jumps off the Lingfield page with two ‘P’s next to his name but it’s worth remembering that he scored on his reappearance last season, making most of the running to score on soft at Exeter on his chasing debut. He had also won the previous November, on his hurdles debut, and appears to be one of those horses best caught early in the season.
If he does happen to score today, you wouldn’t want to back him to follow up. His trainer, Fergal O’Brien, made comments after last year’s success suggesting that the seven-year-old doesn’t take his racing all that well but he is fairly treated and presumably O’Brien will have him ready for this first outing in 10 months. I note the interest in him, from an opening 10-1 to 13-2.
At Sedgefield, there has been support for Clan Chief (2.20) from 16-1 to 7s. “He already has the stamp of a chaser,” the Racing Post noted when he won on his bumper debut in February 2014, so he’s interesting for his chasing debut today, regardless of his lack of productivity over hurdles last season. He fared reasonably well on a testing surface at Ayr in February and runs here off a 5lb lower mark, thanks to a couple of hopeless efforts to end the season.
He comes from the Nick Alexander yard, where something was a little bit off last winter, runners winning at a rate of about 4% from October to February. Happier days appear to be back, as the Alexander beasts are 8/45 since the start of September, so there’s every reason to expect a better showing from Clan Chief now.
Tipping competition, day five
Our winners so far:
Monday
Gallery Exhibition 8-1
Lady Of Longstone 11-1
Medicean Man 10-1
And our leader is …
cerises +17
… being the only one to find a double on Day One, via Gallery Exhibition and Medicean Man. Next come the seven of you who found Lady Of Longstone.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 2.20 Sedgefield, 2.50 Sedgefield, 3.00 Lingfield.
This week’s prize is a copy of The Oaks by Michael Church, a limited edition of a handsome and scholarly work by the official Derby historian. The accompanying blurb reports that it includes “a comprehensive history of the race, its foundation, the results, race commentaries, all the winners and their breeding. There are also accounts of famous owners, trainers and jockeys, essays and pictures of the best winners”. If you don’t win, you can buy a copy here. Don’t say we do nothing to keep you Flat fans warm in winter!
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.
Good luck!
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