When the Nap of the Day was last in action, on Tuesday, it was a bit of a frustrating one, with Seed Investor being denied a clear run, before running on well at the death for third. It probably won’t be long until that one wins. Unfortunately, though, he almost certainly won’t be 8/1 at any point in the near future. A shame, but that’s the way it goes.
| Cheltenham - 16:00 |
Wreckless Eric |
15/2 |
It’s now time for Friday’s Nap, which runs in the final race at Cheltenham, a Class 3 handicap hurdle over two miles.
I’m a little bit surprised that Wreckless Eric, for an in-form Jonjo O’Neill stable, isn’t vying for market supremacy in the early betting.
Sure, he fell two out when returning from a 199-day break at Wincanton a month ago, but he’d travelled into the contest well and was seemingly coming with a big run.
Don’t be too put off by that recent mishap
To be honest, I’m not going to let that fall at Wincanton cloud my opinion of this horse. I thought he looked like a prospect that day, while he looked like a horse with plenty of potential when easily winning a pair of Class 4 handicaps at Wetherby and Huntingdon back in the spring.
The highly unexposed four-year-old also goes for a trainer who has won this race before, a trainer that has recently hit form, and a trainer who often does some of his best work in the month of November.
From a quality point of view, that recent contest was far from poor, with three or four runners in there that would easily rate near the top of this contest, and since he was seemingly making light work of challenging at the death, I really wouldn’t be surprised if the mount of Kielan Woods got seriously involved here.
If he’d stayed on his feet last time out, would he have got the job done? We’ll never know, but he’d come into contention and seemingly had lots left in the tank. If he had scored that day, he’d likely be a bit shorter than odds of 15/2, which may just be a slight overreaction to his fall.
For an in-form trainer, who has won this race not once, but twice before, this is a horse to side with as far as I’m concerned.
Based on a £10 level-stakes example, the Nap of the Day (after 62 Naps) has a running P/L of +£40.00 (since switching to being published here (10/09/2024) rather than on the ‘Nap of the Day' page).
For those interested, here’s a monthly profit and loss breakdown (again based on a £10 level-stakes example):
September 2024 = +£34.00
October 2024 = +£6.00
