Racing tips: Nada To Prada can prove to be well-handicapped off her current mark of 130

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Yesterday's busy day of selections was a mixture of results. Two won, and the ones which did win, did it impressively. As for the others, two were poor and drifted in the market, but The Some Dance Kid was backed into favourite and was pulled up extremely early. Hopefully he hasn't suffered an injury, but it didn't look good as he was simply never travelling.

Hexham 1:50

These marathon staying races are rare to see and not many occur, so when they do, the specialists tend to come out, and one of those is NAKADAM. This horse won this exact race one year ago, and has ran over this kind of trip a multiple of times. The time off the track that he encounters might be an issue, but the fact he won this race when fresh last year off a 357 day break gives me encouragement that they will have him spot on for this race after a 143 day break.

There are couple of unexposed horses at this kind of trip, but with that comes a risk that they might not stay. With the selection you know for a fact that he handles the track, and will stay the trip. The form that he was in before his break was poor, but he was in similar form before he made a return and won this race, so once again that isn't really a concern for me. With the poor form comes a drop in the handicap and he is now rated 97, which is 6lbs less than last year and he races off a nice low weight of 10st 7lbs.

Barry Murtagh isn't a big trainer, but his horses have hit a bit of form in the last fortnight. From the three runners he has sent out, one has won at odds of 16/1 and another placed, so there is encouragement that his horses are in fine fettle.

Ffos Las 2:00

Michael Scudamore is a trainer I have a lot of time for, and I think his training of Chasers is very good. He always seems to do better when his hurdlers go Novice Chasing, and I think NADA TO PRADA is another who will excel in this sphere.

Today's conditions of soft ground should be right up this mare's street as he seemed to relish heavy conditions when winning her sole bumper, and when she won a Class 1 Mares Novice Hurdle at Haydock last year. She made a very encouraging chase debut at Worcester at the start of October, and the form has worked out well. The winner has since gone on and won again, and the third won last week at Market Rasen. It seemed that she might have needed the run, so with that run under her belt, her fitness should be spot on for this. Also, connections have decided to have a tinker with her wind, so that could be another benefit with the recent wind-op.

On paper this does look like a trappy affair, but I feel like this mare could be much better than her current rating of 130. She is the joint highest rated in this race, which unfortunately means she will be carrying top weight, which is never ideal when the ground is soft, especially soft for Ffos Las' standards, but I think she has the class to overcome it and the odds on offer and fair enough.

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