3.20pm Chelmsford Tips & Betting Preview 02/01/2016

3.20pm Chelmsford Saturday 2nd January

Free Tip: Percy Veer at 11/2

Race Details

Race Time: 3.20pm Meeting: Chelmsford Day: Saturday 2nd January 2015 Full Race Name: Scoop6Soccer £1 Million Football Bet Handicap Class Two

Betting Preview

Just the one race on the all-weather as things stand for some unknown reason but we will deal with whatever is thrown at us as always and are confident we will have the winner by race time! A mile and three quarters is almost jumps distance anyway and it looks like Alan King is hoping to win the prize money with Precision Five (7/1). Not the best horse in the yard the son of Proclamation is yet to win over hurdles (though he has only tried twice), but did score over a mile and a half at Lingfield last June and has also taken seven other races on the flat at distances from seven furlongs up to this trip at Chelmsford.  Somehow, even his losing runs have seen him sneak up the handicap and he races today off a mark a ridiculous eleven pounds higher than his last win which seems sure to make life difficult, but his yard are in form and he seems sure to put up a bold effort this afternoon.

With our good friend and bookies enemy Sir Mark Prescott giving the race a swerve our next option has to be Groovejet (33/1) who has been given top weight here after some decent runs in Listed and even Group class, all be it without success. A full fourteen runs since his last win in a Class Five at Southwell of all places suggests he is difficult to win with, though to be fair he is dropping back in to handicap class and off a rating four pounds lower than when last seen at Lingfield so all things are possible.

Trainer Michael Appleby is a likeable sort who just keeps quietly churning out the winners, and in Luv U Whatever (7/1) he has a chance of adding to the successes today. Now a six year old, the son of Needwood Blade has won eight races on the all-weather, though seven of them were at Southwell suggesting he prefers a deeper surface to be seen at his best which may be enough to stop him here, though he was a good second to Second Wave at Wolverhampton last time out and this will be his first visit to the track so we don’t know as yet whether he will love it or hate it. That said, he does carry six pounds more than his highest winning mark, which just leaves him with too many question marks for our liking, though once again, a place is a possibility.

Paddys Motorbike (5/1) sneaks in at the bottom of the weights and then has that reduced by a further seven pounds thanks to the claim of jockey Josephine Gordon, leaving him to run off of a very light weight indeed. He has won at Chepstow and Leicester so far but has only had the eleven career starts and may have more to offer, with the extra trip perhaps helping out as well for the son of Fast Company who defies his breeding with more stamina than expected.

To end with we love the name and the form of the Sylvester Kirk trained Percy Veer (11/2), a son of Sir Percy who has won four races, three of them on the all-weather, and one of them here over further. With his stamina unquestioned and plenty of decent efforts, he is our  idea of the likeliest winner, though just like all the others he is being asked to do more than he has before off his handicap mark which still seems excessive but decisions have to be made and Tom Marquand taking three pounds off his back just about sways us here.