Racing tips: Unanswered looks well handicapped for the crafty Irish trainer Tony Martin

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Friday was a good day and a rare day as it's difficult finding one winner in horse racing, never mind backing two winners from two runners. Both horses didn't look like the winner but battled hard in game fashion. 

Unanswered Prayers jumped brilliantly, and you couldn't have asked for a better round of jumping from a debutante, and If I'm honest you'd be extremely happy with that round of jumping from a veteran. As for Magic Dancer, his jumping wasn't amazing but he jumped the last two extremely well which is when it mattered and that probably did win him the race.

Cheltenham 12:35

It's probably not the best idea to get involved with this kind of race as you can't really weigh up the level of the form unless they've raced against each other, which a few have, but for the most part, it's full of horses who have raced once or are unraced in England.

At the odds, I think MR FREEDOM deserves another chance. I didn't back him for his Wetherby race last time around, as I went for Tuddenham Green, who wasn't great. Mr Freedom was arguably going the best in that race at Wetherby but jinked left at one of the latter hurdles and ran out, sending his jockey flying. At odds of around 6/1 I feel like that makes him a good EW bet, as I'm fairly certain he would've gone close to winning at Wetherby, if not winning. You have the winner of that race running in this today, but Medyaf will have to carry a 5lb penalty for that win, and that is enough for me to swerve that horse and go for Sheena West's horse.

I can see why the Nicholls horse is the favourite, but backing him on seasonal reappearance and stable debut is a bit of a risk. He has shown some decent form when trained in France, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether that form is worth banging home about. Scriptwriter is far too short in the betting for my liking as well. I tipped him up when winning at Sedgefield on hurdles debut a month ago. His jumping wasn't great, and that's a huge issue for me about him as I can't see how he would've brushed up on it that much to warrant a place as second fav.

Cheltenham 1:45

This is a cracking little race, but whether any of the horses in the race will be good enough to win the Arkle, I'm not so sure. Once again, I can see why the Nicholls horse is the favourite, but I feel like he's a bit of a hype horse and hasn't really produced the form to suggest he deserves to be favourite on chase debut. Also, I get the impression he is better over further, but that might not be the case over fences.

For me, TOMMY'S OSCAR is the one they all have to beat. I tipped him up at Carlisle earlier on in the week before their card was abandoned. I think he has the best form in the book, which might sound daft as it came in a 2 runner race, but to carry the weight he did and give away 20lbs+ to a seasonal handicapper and beat him on chase debut, it was some effort to do that. He is the highest rated of these and improved to be a top-level horse over hurdles last year, only failing at Champion Hurdle level, which is no shame.

you have some noticeable names including Cheltenham winners, Banbridge who was a winning selection for me at the Festival. He made a nice impression on chase debut, but I think he might be outgunned by Ann Hamilton's likeable 7yo son of Oscar. Pentland Hills is a strange runner. He won the Juvenile race at Cheltenham a couple of years ago and has gone missing since he was awarded a walkover at Huntingdon last time out, and though he clearly has the ability I'd be sceptical over fences at Cheltenham for this flat bred horse.

Cheltenham 2:20

Not my strongest fancy of the day goes to GA LAW. I don't think you could ever be too confident in a selection in a Cheltenham handicap of this nature (Paddy Power Gold Cup), but I feel like Ga Law comes into this race with one of the best bits of recent form on offer.

To finish 3rd out of eight in the Old Roan Chase Grade 2 at Aintree on the back of a 600-day absence is some going. He only finished 1.5L behind the winner, Riders Onthe Storm, who is a previous Grade 1 winner. I am pleasantly surprised by how well he did, but it doesn't totally surprise me as Jamie Snowden is a brilliant trainer and knows what time of day it is, and is capable of doing what he has done with Ga Law.

With that run under his belt, this could either go one of two ways, either he'll bounce or he would've come on plenty for that run. Hopefully, it's the latter, but it can happen quite frequently where they do bounce and run a stinker after running well from a layoff. Why that is, I'm not so sure, maybe it's because they've put a lot of effort into the comeback run and it takes too much out of them for the following run, if you know why then put it in the comments. However, I'm going to believe that he would've come on a tonne for that run at Aintree, and if that's the case, then he surely will be going close in this, despite it being a tough handicap.

He went chasing as a 4yo, but was clearly capable of jumping fences at a young age and preferred them to hurdles, shown by the fact he won a Grade 2 back in 2020.

Cheltenham 3:30

I'm not going to try and con anyone with my explanation of backing this horse, other than it just seems like a gamble from the trainer, who is notorious of doing it. UNANSWERED just comes across like a horse which Tony Martin does very well with at the big meetings, where they make a bit of money from the race, but also having a cheeky gamble on the side. He's done it for years, and this looks like another.

The early money has come in, which is frustrating as I was hoping it might've happened closer to the off, but he's still at hackable odds of around 5/2.

This looks like they've had this particular meeting/race in mind for a little while. He managed to get a flat run into Unanswered at the Curragh a couple of weeks ago, and that would've helped get him spot on for this run, making his fitness one step closer to being perfect. He hasn't been seen over hurdles since winning his first race over them which came at Punchestown, where he was backed in quite strongly that day as well, which proves how they like to land a gamble considering he was 0/4 before that win and has previously been beaten 44L, 66L, 14.5L and 31L in his previous runs. He then went on to win by 8.5L with ease 🤣 The British handicapper has given him a rating of 111, and I think that could be well within reach for today and wouldn't surprise me to see him swinging at the bottom of the hill hard on the bridle.

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