11.15am Sandown winner Gitane will be given Aintree option
Tony Paley: Saturday’s Sandown Scilly Isles Novice Chase winner Gitane Du Berlais could yet skip the Cheltenham Festival in favour of a trip to the Aintree Grand National meeting.
The JLT Novice Chase was mooted as a potential target immediately after Saturday’s success, but trainer Willie Mullins may save her for a trip to Liverpool.
“Daryl gave her a great ride. He just let her do her job and it worked,” Mullins told At The Races. “Anthony Bromley [owners’ racing manager] picked out the race and said rather than taking on stablemates at home, maybe we should travel. I didn’t dream we were going to win, but it worked out very well.
“I think she might be too keen to go for the RSA and maybe the Arkle would be just asking too much for a mare on her third run over fences. I would think the JLT [could be her Festival target], but remember, she’s won in Aintree so perhaps we’ll skip Cheltenham and go to Aintree. We’ll see.”
Monday’s best bets, by Greg Wood
Musselburgh failed to beat the frost when its course failed an inspection at 8am, and seems likely to be the first of several meetings to go the same way this week with Sedgefield’s card tomorrow gone already, the meeting at Market Rasen depending on an inspection at 1pm today and the card at Carlisle on Wednesday subject to an inspection at 8am tomorrow.
Still, weeks like this are what the all-weather programme was originally conceived for, and though the winter Flat circuit has long since moved on from its initial brief, Wolverhampton’s card this afternoon would have been the most valuable and interesting of the day even if Musselburgh had survived.
Two contests worth £19,000 apiece, one a handicap over two miles and the other a conditions event at an extended mile, are the feature events, and both have quite an attractive shape for betting purposes.
The handicap has attracted seven runners, but may come down to a head-to-head between two lightly-raced horses who look to be ahead of their marks in John Reel and Urban Castle. Both were impressive winners last time out, and both seem likely to cope with the step up in trip, but narrow preference is for John Reel (3.40) at 5-2.
David Evans’s gelding was a little fortunate in a strong race at Lingfield last time out in that he avoided being caught up in an unfortunate incident in which the second-favourite, Personal Opinion, suffered a fatal injury and Castilo Del Diablo, the favourite, was badly hampered. Nonetheless, he stayed on strongly to win in a good time and the slight doubt over the bare form may mean that the market has underestimated his chance just a little.
Choookie Royale (5.10) is worth backing to win the Ladbrokes Conditions Stakes for the second year running. He is making his debut on Wolverhampton’s new Tapeta surface but it seems to cause few problems for horses which act on Polytrack and he won all but one of his six starts at Wolverhampton when the Poly was down.
Don’t Be (3.10) has been typically progressive for Sir Mark Prescott since arriving from France and should complete a five-timer earlier on the card, while at Lingfield, Semaral (3.20) is the standout bet. Early offers of 11-4 yesterday evening have dried up and she is now no better than 2-1, but her form when third against colts last time out is backed up by the clock and she is well worth an interest to return to winning ways back against her own sex.
Tipping competition - a new week
Congratulations to Templegate, who was a runaway winner last week, finishing on +34.50 after a Friday double. Well done, sir! We’ll be in touch by email.
This week’s prize is a couple of Premier tickets to Ascot for Saturday 14 February, featuring the Ascot Chase, won by Captain Chris, Cue Card and Riverside Theatre in recent years. Thanks to Ascot for offering the prize.
To kick things off, we’d like your selections, please, for these races: 3.40 Wolverhampton, 4.20 Lingfield, 5.10 Wolverhampton.
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.
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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