The Student Punter

  14:00 - County Handicap Hurdle The Skeltons have been on fire in the handicaps this week with a couple of plots landed with Madara and Supremely West. I don’t think  SINNATRA  is as much of a ‘plot job’ as those two, as the team had Live Conti lined up for this a long way out - but he sadly misses this through injury. Having said that SINNATRA  was very impressive at Warwick on his latest start and although that form hasn’t been throughly tested, his earlier third to Act Of Innocence reads well after he ran a blinder in the Turners Novice Hurdle earlier this week. I think there is a good chance he’ll prove better than a mark of 133 and, given the combination of his yards excellent record in the race and the fact Novices’ tend to well, he’ll be hard to keep out of the six places on offer JOYEUSE  has been well backed for this since I first went through the race and although her winning may buck a couple of trends mentioned above, she has dropped down to a tempt...

  14:00 - Jack Richards’ Novice Handicap Chase There have been a few horses who have taken big steps forwards since leaving Paul Nicholls in the past year including Kabral Du Mathan later on the card, another is THE BLUESMAN  who is now in the care of Olly Murphy. That improvement has also coincided with a switch to fences over which his form figures read 121. He has been held up and had to come through horses in all of this starts which is good experience when moving into a handicap of this nature - especially now switched to the new course. The second from his most recent race, Western Zephyr, ran a creditable race in the plate earlier in the week when 8th of 17 at 50/1. JORDANS CROSS   won the Timeform Novices’ chase back in January which is usually a very good pointer for this race - with 4 of the last 9 winners of this race contesting that January event. The form of that contest has already worked out well with 5th and 6th placed horses both winning handicaps ne...

14:00 - Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase This race has a much more open look to it than we’re used to and I think OSCARS BROTHER  is worth a small each-way play with 4 places available each-way. He has won Grade 2 contests on both his last two starts including beating KOKTAIL DIVIN  back in November. The latter has no doubt improved since and I think he has a good chance too, but with prices available at the time of writing I’ll chance Connor King’s charge to give it a good go from the front. OSCARS BROTHER 14/1  - 0.5 Point Each-Way 14:20 - BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle PUTURHANDSTOGETHER  was a strong fancy of mine for the County Hurdle later in the week, so although I probably would prefer him over 2 miles - I can’t let him go unbacked here. He was a very impressive winner of the Fred Winter last season off 130 and has been running creditably on the flat since then. One positive for this step up in trip is that he did seem to stay on again late in the Aintree Grade 1 Ju...

13:20 - Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Kicking things off for the week with a more open renewal of the Supreme than in some recent years, at the time of writing nothing is jumping out at the prices. I’m sitting on a few small ante-post slips for OLD PARK STAR  who sets the standard here for Nicky Henderson and he’s certainly the right favourite. The money in the past week  or so was for MIGHTY PARK  for Willie Mullins (money since dried up and drifting), it would be some effort to land this off the back of one run over hurdles - albeit a very impressive one. He won by a whopping 28 lengths at Fairyhouse and while visually impressive performances like that can sometimes be misleading, some of the timefigure boys seem to rate that run very highly. The facts are that at this stage OLD PARK STAR  is the only one to run to Supreme winning figures so far this season, something may improve past him - but I’m going to stick with him here I think the current 5/2 on offer is probably...

  14:30 Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1) 1m (Str) I was at Newbury for Lockinge day and thought the track was definitely favouring those up with the pace, so the efforts of Rosallion  and NOTABLE SPEECH  are both worthy of an upgrade. The former looked a touch short to me here though and I thought the 5/1 available on Charlie Appleby’s charge was more than fair. He was coming off the back of a 196 day absence at Newbury and was keen early towards the rear, made good headway a couple of furlongs out, but his run petered out in the closing stages as was the case for many on the day. I think the rattling quick ground and the straight track at Ascot will suit him perfectly, I think he can finish ahead of Rosallion again, as he did in the 2000 Guineas last year. Paddy Power are paying 4 places so I would take advantage of that if you are able to. NOTABLE SPEECH 5/1  - 1 Point Each-Way 15:05 Coventry Stakes (Group 2) 6f BONE MARRA  is a massive price in this while the bare...

  17:20 Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys' Handicap Chase A lot of my week revolves around the running of MIDNIGHT OUR FRED  in the Kim Muir. I’ve had him in mind for this for a while and was delighted to see the UK handicapper only nudge him up 1lb. He bolted up at Gowran Park in October then followed that up with a huge run at Leopardstown over Christmas when 2nd to Perceval Legallois (one I like for the Grand national). That Leopardstown run is worthy of an upgrade as he disputed the lead throughout with Three Card Brag and while that rival folded to be beaten over lengths in 7th, Fred kept on well to finish an excellent 2nd. Three Card Brag went on to win next time at Navan, while another prominent racer from Leopardstown, Nick Rockett (4th) won the Thyestes on his next start and followed up at Fairyhouse in a Grade 3 next time out. There’s also the fact he has form round Cheltenham, running an excellent 2nd of 19 in October 2023 and then running 2nd again over 3m4f h...

  14:40 - Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle 2m4f Dan Skelton is always one to keep a close eye on in these festival handicap hurdles and he looks to have teed up another great chance in BE AWARE . It’s not rocket science picking him out and even though he’s close to the top of the market I still make him a bet with the extra places available. He was 2nd to Burdett Road in at the Greatwood off 130 and given that rival is now rated 17lb higher (potentially more after his fortunate Champion Hurdle second on day one) he has to have a huge chance off 137 here. You can put a line through his effort last time out and he has obviously been saved for this. SANDOR CLEGANE  was one of the Irish runner fortunate enough to get away without the usual handicapper ‘tax’ for crossing the Irish Sea and I think he could be up to taking advantage of that. It would probably be unfair to say his chasing career was a complete failure, because he was mixing it in some tough races (including a 4th behind Fact...