Our top tipster, Daryl Carter fires in four selections for Friday’s card at Newbury, with the Berkshire venue featuiring a couple fo Grade 2 contests.. Check out his tips below, along with an exclusive Virgin Bet offer that provides new customers with £20 in free bets.
Prices correct at time of publication
NASSALAM – (12:40 Newbury, 2pts win – 11/4 bet365) (NAP)
NASSALAM was better than the bare result at Ascot last time after jumping out to the left at nearly all of his fences and conceding plenty of ground to the runner-up Solo (who I couldn’t have at all in the 13:50).
He is a fast-improving four-year-old, and he is in receipt of 9lbs from his elders in this contest which makes him look very favourable at the weights. He is entitled to improve for the switch to a left-handed track and for fitness on this outing, and he is unexposed over this middle distance trip so looks well worth siding with.
Millers Bank was good at Huntingdon in a poor race, but I am not convinced by him as a chaser. Tea Clipper I have similar reservations about, and his jumping has the potential to go to pot under pressure. Pic D’Orhy looks the big danger returning to the scene of his Betfair Hurdle win, but he hasn’t progressed over fences and looks vulnerable to an improver.
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GOOD RISK AT ALL – (1.15 Newbury, 1pt win – 11/4 Will Hills)
I am struggling to see why Jonbon – other than reputation – is a heavy odds on favourite here. I have been through his point to point form, which has produced one Maiden Hurdle winner, who is rated 106 and one point to point winner a year later.
His bumper win recorded a time slower than hurdle race on the card, and the form has seen no winners since, so maybe it’s the hype of his relation to Douvan and his yard that make him this price? Still, I work with facts and figures, and the standard-setter by some way, is GOOD RISK AT ALL.
He is entitled to improve for his outing at Chepstow, where plenty went wrong for him, and Sam Twiston-Davies admitted himself he got plenty wrong. The form of his three bumper runs has worked out well, and produced horses rated 130 + all over the place. He would have been intensely schooled since Chepstow, and I expect him to get off the mark over hurdles the second time out this year and replicate his bumper win last term.
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FANION D’ESTRUVAL – (2.25 Newbury, 2pts win – 11/4 Will Hills)
This is a competitive heat, but FANION D’ESTRUVAL has unfinished business from last season to take care of and is now into a handicap for just the third time in his career. He could be ready to show his worth.
His handicap debut here off 137 when a mighty impressive winner in an excellent time figure has worked out well with the runner up now rated 18lbs higher, and he did that in no more than a canter. That takes care of the course box. He is also unexposed over this 2 1/2 mile trip for which he has just three starts. The first when travelling extremely well before falling in the Grade 2 Peterborough Chase and then well beaten in a strange Ryanair at the Cheltenham Festival before the latest.
He is one of our horses to follow and is open to further improvement over this trip and further, and connections look to have found an ideal handicap with most having questions to answer. He is fit from his latest outing when a huge eye-catcher at Aintree and should take all the beating here.
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SLATE HOUSE – (3.35 Newbury, 1pt each-way – 20/1 Betf365, Betfred)
Plenty to like in here, but one of the most interesting runners is SLATE HOUSE at a big price. He makes his handicap hurdle debut with his other two runs in handicaps coming over fences.
The first of those ended with a fall when travelling strongly in the Betvictor Gold Cup off a mark of 147, and the second he was beaten on the back of wind surgery at Wincanton off 150. Today he runs off 137, and given he is a former Grade 1 winning chaser and a Grade 2 winning hurdler, he is worth chancing at the prices on the back of a satisfactory run at Wetherby in the Grade 2 Bet365 hurdle behind Indefatigable.
He was always towards the rear there, but there was a moment when they turned into the straight where you thought he might play a part. He is entitled to improve for that run after 245 days off the track and he has to be of interest now in a contest like this, which is the weakest he has faced on paper in his career.
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DARYL CARTER’S BEST BETS
NASSALAM – (12:40 Newbury, 2pts win – 11/4 bet365) (NAP)
GOOD RISK AT ALL – (1.15 Newbury, 1pt win – 11/4 Will Hills)
FANION D’ESTRUVAL – (2.25 Newbury, 2pts win – 11/4 Will Hills)
SLATE HOUSE – (3.35 Newbury, 1pt each-way – 20/1 Bet365, Betfred)
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