Reigning Champion Trainer Paul Nicholls heads north to Worcester on Saturday for a trio of runners on their seven-race card. Nicholls is currently operating at a 37% strike rate (+15.03 profit to level stakes) at Worcester in recent seasons, and he aims to enhance that and in the process bring up a 17/1 treble. Check out our thoughts on his runners below, along with a £30 in Free Bets new customer bonus when you sign up and bet £10 at BetUK.
WILD MAX – (6:00 Worcester, Amodil Supplies Ltd Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase) 4/7
Paul Nicholls’s first runner on Worcester’s Saturday card comes in the track’s extended 2m handicap chase. There have been just the three entered for this contest, and bookmakers feel that WILD MAX is by far the most likely of the trio to land the spoils.
This 7yo has had the three chase starts to date, making a victorious return to this sphere when landing a novice chase at Newton Abbot by 13l last month.
Wild Max failed to supplement that when held at odds of 4/9F at Ffos Las next time out, yet Wild Max was attempting to concede 6lb that day and the front two pulled over 50l clear of the remainder, so it mightn’t pay to treat the run too harshly.
Wild Max reverts to handicap company here and he’s off a mark of 132, which proved no barrier over hurdles. With the ground in his favour, he looks like a class act in this field and should be returning to winning ways.
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JUSTMYIMAGINATION – (7:00 Worcester, Amodil Group Open National Hunt Flat Race) 2/1
Paul Nicholls is an incredible 5-5 with his bumper runners at Worcester in the last five seasons, and he sends JUSTMYIMAGINATION to the track on Saturday in an attempt to maintain that impressive record. A horse that will be Paul Nicholls’ first bumper runner of the 2022/23 Jumps season.
This daughter of Sixties Icon is out of a 1m2f winner, herself from the family of stakes winners in the US and Norway, so there’s definite potential for her to appreciate this test more than some of her Jumps-bred rivals.
Receiving both 4yo and fillies allowances Justmyimagination sneaks in here off a featherweight, and the market should provide an excellent guide on what to expect here on debut.
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GLAJOU – (7:30 Worcester, Amodil Supplies Ltd Novices’ Handicap Hurdle) 3/1
The last of the Paul Nicholls trio at Worcester on Saturday is GLAJOU, who runs in the track’s 2m handicap hurdle.
This Middleham Park-owned gelding hasn’t managed to win since December 2020, yet he has largely been campaigned at a higher level than that he faces here and this will be just his fourth hurdles start for the Nicholls stable.
On his last run over timber, Glajou finished just five and a half lengths off the now 129-rated Honneur D’Ajonc (received 3lb), and that formline suggests that Glajou could be well treated here handicapping off an opening hurdles rating of 111, which is 5lb below his chase mark.
Donald McCain’s Master Malachy is the obvious danger here having won his last two starts, but those victories both came in a lower grade than this and he’s up 9lb for the most recent success.
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