King Ulanda took a slight drift in the market for his race at Warwick, going off at odds of 5/2 after being advised at 2/1. He still went off as the favourite and put in a decent performance, but not good enough to land the victory, which saw him finish just over three lengths behind the Gary & Josh Moore winner, Aggagio.
With Cheltenham starting on Tuesday and us having the usual dribble of Monday racing, I'll be keeping my money close to my chest and parting ways with just one selection for the start of the week.
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Virgin Bet are offering new members the chance to get £10 money back on a selected race every day during this week's Cheltenham festival.* That's in addition to their standard £20 welcome offer of course, which is awarded with a £10 qualifying bet.**
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Rizzel's tips
Inis Orr 7/2 – Taunton 3.40
The best race of the day comes in the 3.40pm race at Taunton which is a Class 3 Chase over 3m 4f and Lucinda Russell has decided to send her first-ever runner to Taunton with Inis Orr who was punted off the boards for the Edinburgh National race at Musselburgh the other month, but sadly for connections he was unseated very early into the race, which would have left a sour taste in the mouth.
Given how well he was fancied to run in that Edinburgh National, and the fact that they are willing to travel from Scotland all the way to Somerset for this race, which is worth £10k to the winner shows they mean business. The trip is a 15-hour round trip and a 900-mile trek, which will cost a pretty penny for the fuel alone, so I'm expecting a huge performance from Lucinda Russel's horse.
Despite him being fancied last time out, his record over fences isn't encouraging with just one win, he is on a decent handicap mark and I can see why they believe he is well handicapped. He won the Musselburgh National in 2024 off a mark of 119, but he won that race at a romp of 21L, so a 5lb higher mark is definitely a workable mark. The ground isn't a problem, he seems to go on any ground and he did with that race last year on a similar surface, and this is a much weaker race than what he has been competing in recent memory.
GambleAware
Viroflay 4.50 Stratford 11/10 wh.
Young Olive Nicholls now training & riding this horse for her dad that owns it.
Hacked up in a decent p-t-p last time now in a very average novice hunters chase.
Hopefully boost the Chelt pot 😀