Rory Delargy is back with two bets for Market Rasen on Thursday including one in an intriguing Pertemps Qualifier.
Recommended bets:
1pt e.w Label des Obeaux in 1.30 Market Rasen at 16/1 (minimum 12/1)
1pt win Shanroe Tic Tec in 3.03 Market Rasen at 17/2 (minimum 7/1)
Vintage Label? 1.30 Market Rasen - Label Des Obeaux
A Pertemps Final qualifier with no less than three JP McManus runners is going to have the abacuses (Abaci? Or is that a Genesis album? Not sure) out for a few, but it’s worth bearing in mind that all three are on marks that would have easily seen them qualify for last year’s Cheltenham final.
The fact Tower Bridge comes over from Ireland to try and book his place is noteworthy, as the Irish qualifiers tend to be more competitive, but he’s easily in the final off a mark of 145 anyway.
Label Des Obeaux, however, would need to win, and win well, if he’s to go up enough in the handicap to get himself in, and three miles on good ground here gives him ideal conditions in which to operate. There are some gaps on his CV, and this will only be his fifth start in two years, but he shaped encouragingly on his reappearance at Newton Abbot last month and gave the impression his old ability was largely intact.
Rated in the 150s in his pomp over fences, his current mark of 126 reflects what he’s achieved in more recent times but this is the first time he’s had his ground for some time, and he can take advantage.
Tic Tec Dough? 3.03 Market Rasen
The market is going to revolve around Ivor’s Involvement, a ready winner at Sedgefield last week and as that was a conditionals race, he gets no penalty for it. For many, the booking of Bryony Frost for this female riders’ race will merely be the icing on the cake, but it doesn’t take a lot of digging to find reasons why Ivor’s Involvement might not be the good thing he looks at first glance.
Firstly, he went off 100-1 at Sedgefield, having shown little on the Flat, and he ended up beating the moderate Cryogenics, a 79-rated hurdler that’s just won once in 25 starts, and himself a 50-1 shot for the race. Ivor’s Involvement has won four times in 46 starts, and each time he has won, he’s followed that by running at least 10lb below form on his next start. That does not make him an appealing proposition at 5/4 here.
The one we like against the favourite is Shanroe Tic Tec, a C&D winner here last year, one of three wins he racked up in succession on right-handed tracks. He’s fallen some way in the handicap in quite a short space of time, but there was more encouragement to be taken from his effort at Exeter last time, and the booking of Lilly Pinchin, who knows the horse well, having been on board for two of those three wins last year, looks significant.
So does the return of blinkers, which were on for all of his wins but have been missing in his last five starts.
- Preview posted 1800 GMT on 18/11/2020
