Matt Brocklebank settles on a strong fancy north of the border in his Friday preview of the ITV4 action.
- The Value Bet is designed to generate long-term profit by searching for overpriced horses in the feature weekend races and at the big Festivals in the UK and Ireland.
- Following all of Matt’s tips to advertised stakes/odds since he took over from Ben Linfoot in June 2020 would have produced over 105pts profit.
- This year he's tipped winners Aucunrisque at 14/1, Maskada at 25/1, Stage Star at 11/1, Tiger Jet at 16/1 and Rebel Territory at 7/1.
Value Bet tips: Friday, April 28
2pts win Concetto in 2.05 Perth at 7/1 (Coral, bet365) - minimum 11/2
Standout chance in Perth feature
Sandown's off so to Perth we go and the BetVictor Highland National Handicap Chase in which we are left with a field of 13 after the defection of top weight Court Master – more on him taking up the Sandown entry on Saturday to follow tomorrow, perhaps.
It’s been a memorable season for trainer Lucinda Russell whose stable continues in sparkling form this month – if you’ve not yet seen Giovinco’s win in the 3m novices’ hurdle here on Wednesday then I urge you to revisit the performance. Mahler Mission won that race last year from Complete Unknown, Galia Des Liteaux and The Goffer, with Threeunderthrufive taking top spot the year before, so don’t underestimate what we might have witnessed in midweek.
Back to Friday’s feature and Russell runs two including Destiny Is All, who put in a much-improved performance when just missing out to Tile Tapper at Carlisle in February before proving that no fluke by finishing second to course specialist Volcano upped to 3m5f at Warwick last month.
Destiny Is All, still very lightly raced for a nine-year-old, has been left alone on a mark of 115 for that last effort and, with Derek Fox on the sidelines again nursing a broken collarbone, he’s a good spare to pick up for the in-form Jamie Hamilton as it would appear to be his first ride for the stable.
That does make the stablemate Return Fire quite interesting too, though, as Patrick Wadge was clearly keen enough to keep that partnership intact. This son of Leading Light isn’t obviously well treated on recent evidence but he’ll be happier getting back on a sound surface and clearly has time on his side as a seven-year-old.
Return Fire is around 10/1 at the time of writing which looks fair but if there’s one horse in here who could turn it into a complete procession as Slipway did 12 months ago, then it is CONCETTO and anything north of 5/1 looks superb value.
Representing Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, whose first season as a training duo could hardly have gone any better, Concetto was snapped up from the pointing scene for £40,000 and, after three spins over hurdles towards the end of 2022, they’ve wasted no time switching to the larger obstacles.
As far as chasing debuts go, this horse’s Huntingdon win on February 9 was really quite impressive, the six-year-old bouncing off the good ground to win by four lengths from a bunch of horses who have amassed four wins between them subsequently.
The selection unsurprisingly shrugged off a 7lb rise to win even more impressively when upped to three miles at Musselburgh on March 1, and he already looked ready for a marathon test when second on slightly softer ground at Ludlow last time out.
That track looked sharp enough for him when winner Latitude quickened clear but Concetto stayed on encouragingly and he gets another chance off the same mark over this extended 3m6f trip, with conditions to suit as well.
He’ll surely be given a bold sight of things by Fergus Gregory on Friday and he’d be the strongest fancy on the day by some way.
Click here for the full Value Bet record
Published at 1445 BST on 27/04/23
More from Sporting Life
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org