Well, after a fairly average Cheltenham Festival with a winner with Stumptown and many horses placing it was nice to bounce back with a couple of wins on the normal thread.
Continuance managed to tough it out on the front end under a good ride from 10lb claimer Freddie Keighley. I was concerned throughout the first half of the race as the horse didn't look to be settled, but it didn't mean much as the horse was just too well handicapped with the claimer on board, as well as his jumping being extremely good apart from one mistake.
Milan Forth landed the second winner of the day over at Down Royal and if I'm honest I didn't get to see much of the race as the signal on my phone was horrendous at the time and the picture quality was not the greatest. From the commentary, it seemed that my selection cruised through the race and managed to battle past the leader who tried to hang in there after jumping two from home.
Hopefully, some of you managed to be on the pair, and if you were lucky enough to have faith in me and put them in a double it paid around 16/1.
Rizzel's tips
De Tellers Fortune 7/4 – Wetherby 3.35
Just a heads up, I do apologise for sticking up a couple of shorter-priced horses for Tuesday's racing, but I thought the chances of both horses were very strong…
My first selection of the day is De Tellers Fortune who is one of two rare runners at Wetherby from the Nicky Henderson stable. It probably is a bit of a concern that Nico isn't making the trip up to Wetherby, but I prefer James Bowen anyway, so it's a positive in my eyes. I had this race between the two horses towards the bottom of the weights and Kelce was my idea of the main threat to the selection. I was thinking about tipping the reverse forecast, but I decided against that and went for the Henderson horse.
The main reason for picking De Tellers Fortune over Kelce was Nicky Henderson's record at this track, especially with chasers. Nicky has been training for a very long time but has only sent 33 horses for chase races at today's venue, which has seen him win 10 of them, which is a strike rate of 30%. If you go even further and put that in the last five years he is 4/6 (67% strike rate).
This horse has only been seen over fences on two occasions, so is obviously very unexposed in this sphere and I think the return to good ground is something which will see him back in the winner's enclosure. He managed to win on his chase debut when giving away 12lbs to the runner-up at Taunton after a 211 day absence. Last time out he was pulled up, but that was on soft ground, which the trainer said didn't suit him, and when you look at his previous runs over hurdles, you can't argue with that statement. He was a winner over hurdles on good ground and a PTP winner on the same surface. The form of the win at Taunton looks solid, as the runner-up has since won on his next start and then finished 3rd behind Yes Day, who is a horse that I've always felt is well-handicapped.
Bois Guillbert 6/4 – Wetherby 2.30
The second and final selection of Tuesday is the top weight Bois Guillbert who is making his second chase start for the Lucinda Russell stable.
This race could chuck up a weird result as you have the likes of Do Your Job who is very well handicapped on form from years ago, and Geryville is a very capable horse, but is extremely inconsistent. I thought the safest option was my selection who is unexposed at the trip and as a chaser.
This race could be muddling in terms of the pace as there doesn't appear to be an out-and-out front runner who will set a frantic pace. I did have reservations about the trip for Bois Guillbert as he has been kept to shorter trips and when he did try this trip over hurdles he didn't run too well, but when I thought about the pace, it could be set up for my fancy who clearly has the pace over shorter and if they don't go a good gallop, he could burn past these.
Micks Jet is a useful mare but seems to be on a tough mark and has been running over slightly further, and her latest win was over today's C&D but on a much slower surface. William Cody is a horse that I've felt isn't as good as his current rating, and he hasn't exactly looked like returning to the winner's enclosure in recent runs.
GambleAware