Racing tips: Some Scope gets a suitable trip for his handicap debut

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It's been a frustrating period, and yesterday continued that with three finishing in the top three.

Shouldvebeenaring took too long to get going, but the winner was impressive and stepped up 20lbs+ to get the victory. Barenboim travelled well into the race, didn't stay the race out as well as those ahead of him. The Wizard Of Eye is still raw at the age of 4, took a pull through the race, looked to have a nice chance entering the final furlong but didn't have anything left to give. Waleyfa was dreadful from the beginning.

Musselburgh 3:00 – Count D'orsay 33/1 (0.5pt ew 4pl)

Count D'orsay has been a cliff horse of mine for many years, and here I am backing him again at the start of another flat season…

In all seriousness, I think he is being massively overlooked based on his early market odds of 33/1. He is now a 7yo, so isn't going to be as good as he once was, but he is being disregarded in this race, which shouldn't be the case off a mark of 79. I normally tend to stay away from horses who need to bounce back to form after showing a downward curve, but I think this horse was over races last year, and will have needed the winter break to recharge the batteries. Bearing in mind he isn't a spring chicken anymore, he probably shouldn't have been raced for the entire of the flat season, racing every month, as when you get older you need rest to recover, more than when you were younger. His handicap mark did drop from 95 to his current mark of 79 over the course of the season, but I refuse to believe he lost all of his ability overnight.

He ran some belting races from the start of last season to the start of the summer, including a 2nd in a 21k Chester race, 4th on seasonal reappearance, 3rd in another Class 2 Chester race and was even placed in more big pot handicaps as the season progressed. His last seven or so runs from the back end of September is when his form started to tail off, but that looks like he was suffering from a long season.

This race is normally all about draw and grabbing the rail and trying to make all, but we saw last year with Zarzyni that doesn't have to be the case. Count D'orsay loves tracking a red-hot pace, so this race should be made for him. He is drawn wide in the low stalls, so will have to take a sit-in behind the pace and potentially go wide like Zarzyni did last year. At the prices, he is a definite EW player in my eyes.

Haydock 2:40 – Jeffery's Cross 7/2 (1pt)

The Skelton combo often burns my fingers as they did last week with Frere D'Armes, but I'll be giving them another chance with Jeffery's Cross.

This horse has a likeable profile for a race like this, he is a very lightly raced chaser and comes into this at the bottom of the weights. He's not been seen since December, so has been put away for the spring races and this race is offering great prize money, so it wouldn't surprise me if this has been the plan all along.

He has finished 2nd on all three of his chase starts, bumping into some very well-handicapped horses like Only The Bold and Coolvalla, who have both gone on to improve by 20lbs and 29lbs, so he had little to no chance of ever beating those on the day he raced against them. He handles all types of ground, he's run well on soft, but has won on good ground, and the fact the Skelton's have put him away during the winter suggests they think he's on a very good handicap mark to exploit for the good ground meetings.

Haydock 3:50 – Ballinslea Bridge 4/1 (1pt)

I wouldn't be getting too heavy on the stakes for Ballinslea Bridge, but I do think he has a nice chance in this race for trainer, Harriet Dickin.

He ran in the race I put up a winning selection, Hotel Du Nord. The winner was subject to a huge gamble, backed in from 25/1 to win at 5/1, so it was probably going to take a fair bit of beating him that day at the bottom of the weights, but I thought Ballinslea Bridge ran a corker to finish second. He travelled lovely that day, clearly enjoying the decent ground, and he jumped himself into the lead after three from home, and I thought he was going to be a very big player, he was eventually headed but he did stick to his task to finish second. That was a decent Veteran's chase, and though the winner was PU the next time out (was going well but went backwards suddenly, the run probably came too soon) I think the form looks good. The third finished second on his next chase and the 6th has previously bolted up the time before.

I don't think this race is particularly strong, there is always a chance that a horse will bounce back to form but he is definitely one of the stronger candidates in this race for a yard that generally keeps their horses down south.

Haydock 4:25 – Some Scope 6/1 (1pt ew)

I am always a big fan of when a horse goes up in trip by a fair amount for their handicap debut, as it looks like they've been prepping for handicaps and have wanted to keep their handicap mark down so they can exploit it. Some Scope looks like a typical improver for their handicap debut now he is stepped up 3m.

He was a PTP winner on his sole start between the flags, winning by 4.5L when he made all, he has a good staying pedigree and with Gavin Sheehan in the saddle, it looks like they are going for it today. He hasn't run terribly in his maiden runs to date, but he was never really put into contention, and it was simply over trips far too short for him. Gavin has been the go-to man for Richard Hobson this season when they try and win a race, with 3 wins from 9 efforts with a further 4 being placed, recording a profit of +14.25 to £1 level stakes.

As this horse made all on his PTP win, it wouldn't surprise me to see him run prominently under Gavin, who is definitely one of the best in the UK when riding from the front.

Wolverhampton 8:30 – Connie R 6/1 (0.5pt ew)

I'm not a fan of Class 6 racing, and I try not to get too involved as it is a total cesspit full of horses who don't win or are very inconsistent, but I can't help but be drawn to Connie R, who is still a maiden after 19 runs.

Not winning a race from 19 races is never ideal, but I recently put up Zara's Universe who was a maiden before winning over fences at Market Rasen, so it doesn't really put me off that he is a maiden. I think his run style is partially to blame for not having a win under his belt, as he is often held up from off the pace in quite big field handicaps, which is never the place you really want to be. However, this is the smallest field he's ever competed in and even if he gets held up from the wide stall of 8, he should be able to have a chance of putting in a late run.

For a horse who has never won and competes at the bottom of the handicap, he tends to travel nicely into his race, and the same thing happened last time out where he probably did finish behind a well-handicapped winner who kicked on around the bend when Connie R was around 4L behind him but travelling sweetly. He stayed on well and put 1.25L between him and the third-placed horse, so looks decent form for this race.

Aidan Keeley takes over from Tom Eaves, and he claims 5 lbs, meaning he is running off 8st 2lbs. Aidan is 5/20 when riding for Michael Herrington over the last five years and is 3/9 this season with a further 2 placed efforts.

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