Tuesday’s Racing Tips – A winning chase debut looks on the cards for The Doyen Chief

As I mentioned in yesterday's write-up, Selectivelistening is a bit of a monkey and it was always a risk backing him and he went on to prove me right as he went through the race like the winner but when it got serious, he chucked the towel in and didn't want anything to do with it.

The other runner, Magic Seven, was halved in price at the time of racing but he went out like a light.

Rizzel's Tips

Rialannah 7/2 – Market Rasen 2.05

This maiden race looks wide-open, with not many of the field having decent form coming into the race, but I did think that Rialannah was the stand-out horse and the booking of Harry Cobden cemented my views that she is the one to be on.

Only three horses have an official rating, with Tineggiori being at the top with a rating of 113, and then we have my selection of Rialannah who is rated 110. For the life of me, I cannot understand how the handicapper has come to the assumption that Tineggiori is rated 113 as his best RPR from his two runs to date has been 101, making him miles off his rating. Obviously, rating in this race means very little as it's not a handicap, but it is used as a gauge of where a horse is, but in my opinion, that rating is not accurate. On the other hand, Rialannah's rating of 110 seems a more accurate representation of her ability and she has the best form in this race, by quite a distance.

Her runner-up finish over today's C&D behind Pitwood Road has been franked on a couple of occasions. The third horse has won twice since and the fifth-placed horse was a runner-up on her next start.

Nick Schofield is the stable jockey for Sue Smith's yard, and he is at Market Rasen tomorrow but isn't on board this horse after being the jockey on the last few starts. Harry Cobden takes the ride, and normally seeing the stable jockey off would be enough to put me off but Harry Cobden is the best jumps jockey in the country, so seeing him booked is an encouraging sign.

Ideal De Romay 12/1 – Market Rasen 3.35 (Each Way 4pl)

This 2m 7f race is a bit of a minefield with no outstanding claims by any horse. The Skelton horse is short enough in the market and I think that is solely on her being unexposed and this being full of exposed horses, but she hasn't set the world alight in her previous runs and is now stepping up in trip. If she were to win, it wouldn't be a total surprise as Dan does very well when his horses go into handicap races, but she didn't tempt me at the price she currently sits at.

I've ended up taking a punt on the bottom weight, Ideal De Romay. I was debating to leave this race alone after going through the field and probably did fancy Shibuya Song, but that horse is inconsistent and runs very lazily, but the last horse on the list to check off was Ideal De Romay and he did catch my eye. This horse is built for fences, he looks like an absolute tank of a horse, so it's a surprise that he hasn't taken to fences on his two tries so far, especially with a PTP win under his belt. He is currently rated 68 over hurdles and given he did win a PTP in good fashion, which has seen the runner-up win since, he has to be much better than his current handicap mark.

He has shown glimpses of ability over hurdles, one time at this track and the other at Fontwell which was the same race yesterday's selection, Selectivelistening, threw away the race. At that Fontwell race, he was trapped out wide and did a lot of extra unnecessary running, but stayed to the task well over 2m 5.5f on a tight track. At Market Rasen he was going through the race travelling like one of the best but the horse in front of him slammed the brakes on jumping three from home and that stopped the momentum of Ideal De Romay. He ran with credit after that, but given he is a PTP winner, getting back up to top speed isn't his best attribute so he struggled to get going again, but he ran better than the bare results of the finish.

On breeding and from his PTP win, today's trip of 2m 7f should be ideal for him. This race is competitive, but more down to that nothing has outstanding claims, but it does leave it wide open for a horse to win it off a handicap mark which is too low and I do think that is Ideal De Romay. Lilly Pinchin is back in the saddle after not riding this horse recently, which is a positive as she is the main jockey used for the Charlie Longsdon yard. I do think connections think this lad is much better than his current rating as he has been well-fancied in a few of his races, even from the early stages of his rules career.

The Doyen Chief 11/4 – Market Rasen 4.05 (2pt)

In a race full of horses who have chase experience, I have found myself on the chase debutante.

The Doyen Chief is a horse I fancy quite a bit for this race, which might sound a tad crazy as we've not seen him jump a race in public unless you have access to the PTP database. He managed to win on his second PTP start, winning by a couple of lengths. The runner-up of that race went on to win on his next two starts in that sphere and the pair were many lengths clear of the third. He was a 1/2F for his PTP debut but he didn't make it further than the first when he fell, which is a slight concern but given he put that to bed a week later on his next race shows he has plenty of character and ability to match.

His runs over hurdles were decent last year with some good pieces of form. He was behind Choccabloc on his hurdling debut, that horse is in the late 120s over hurdles for the Henderson stable. He then managed to win two of his next three races with the form stacking up nicely, particularly the win over Take No Chances who has since improved massively and is now rated 136 with a recent 3rd/17 at Chepstow on the weekend.

He was sparingly raced over hurdles with just four runs last season, and I think that was because they always felt he was a chaser for the future and all they needed to do was get him some experience over hurdles and put him away for a good novice chase season which starts today.

Today's race has some good handicappers in here, but I wouldn't say they are on attractive handicap marks and I think with a clear round of jumping The Doyen Chief could win this, and do it in style. The time away from the track isn't a concern as he has won from a 123 day layoff before and was a short head second on hurdling debut from a 217-day absence.

Horse Racing Tips

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