The Timeform Jury team pick out the best bets for the ITV racing on Friday.
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Cheltenham
1.50 0.5 pt – 3 Our Power
Chianti Classico rather stands out as a progressive, potentially high-class chaser taking on largely exposed rivals and there isn’t a massive urge to take him on, but at the prices it’s difficult to leave the Timeform top rated Our Power completely out of calculations. There’s obvious guesswork involved with him, as he hasn’t run for more than a year, but he’s on a good mark judged on the form that saw him win two handicaps in this bracket the season before last. One of those wins came first time back, and the chances are that Sam Thomas – a trainer whose string continues in fine form – will have Our Power tuned up and ready to go first time back. It’s true that Our Power has done all his winning over fences the other way around, but his fifth from a tough position on the track in the 2022 Ultima on his sole chase start at Cheltenham does suggest he’s equipped to cope with this test.
2.25 1 pt – 5 Seddon
Seddon has only managed four outings over jumps since a fabulous 2022/23 campaign that saw him win the Plate at the Festival, and he hasn’t done much to set the pulse racing on any of them, but this will be his first try in veterans' company, and with some more encouraging recent Flat efforts to his name he’s worth chancing back at the scene of his finest hour. He’s won twice on the level in recent months, showing useful form when winning amateurs' races at Killarney and Listowel, and if nothing else those suggest that his engine remains intact. He returns to Cheltenham from a mark 3 lb higher than for that Plate win, but in a much less competitive race, and if he is able to reproduce that level of form then he ought to be thereabouts at the finish.
3.00 1 pt – 4 Stumptown
It’s not a surprise to see the French raider Iceo Madrik heading the market for the cross country following his compatriot Sweet David’s success from even further out of the weights in the race at the last meeting here, but Sweet David had a higher level of form in France and was also a bigger price in a less competitive race. At as short as 7/2, it’s easy to look elsewhere and Stumptown is a compelling alternative. As a seven-year-old, he’s a youngster so far as this discipline goes and he’s taken to it very well with successive wins over the banks at Punchestown on his last two outings. Before that, he had plenty of good quality form in conventional handicaps, including at Cheltenham, and he’s got the profile of one that could develop into the leading force in this division for a few seasons to come.
3.35 1 pt – 6 Zain Nights
The obvious starting point here is the highly progressive Doyen Quest, who made it four wins from his last six starts when justifying heavy support over C&D at the Paddy Power meeting on his most recent outing. He then missed the valuable staying handicap at Haydock the following weekend on account of bad ground, but there are no such concerns here and, even from 10 lb higher, he’s still potentially ahead of his mark. He’s priced as though absolutely still well-in, however, and it’s not as if this doesn’t have its share of interesting runners. One of those is Zain Nights who did take part in the race Doyen Quest missed at Haydock and patently failed to cope with the heavy ground, his rider finally calling it a day on the home turn. Underfoot conditions will be far more suitable here and it’s probably the case that Zain Nights has been underestimated on the back of a perfectly explainable poor performance, his profile prior to Haydock being steadily progressive and no surprise if he’s able to get back on the up here on less testing ground.
Bangor
2.05 No Bet Advised
It’s very hard to see past the short-priced Kevin’s Pride in this. The impressive winner of a Kilbeggan bumper on debut, he failed to justify favouritism in a maiden at Carlisle on his hurdling debut last month but shaped with plenty of promise all the same, again travelling easily for a long way and finding for pressure too despite being edged out by another hurdling newcomer. The third that day has since run out an emphatic winner of a similar race at Kelso and, whilst a few of these do look open to improvement, the likelihood is that Kevin’s Pride will need to run to just a similar level of form to get the job done this time.
2.40 1 pt – 7 Schalke
This is a keenly-contested handicap of its type, quite unusually for a staying handicap hurdle all bar one of the field being seven or younger. The exception is the nine-year-old Schalke, who lost his way completely last season but shaped much better on his first outing for a new yard over this C&D at the back-end of October, not beaten far into third and sure to have done even better had he not fluffed the last. He’s undoubtedly interesting from a similar mark under the same capable conditional, even allowing for this being a stronger handicap, wisely given plenty of time to get over that comeback effort and surprising that he’s as big as he is on Thursday afternoon.
You can access the TV Focus selections and rationale at 5pm the evening before racing for £7.50 on the Timeform website.
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