Fixed Brush Hurdle Tips & Betting Preview

As competitive as you would expect for the guaranteed £80,000 in prize money and some big odds are possible with the statistics showing winners at odds up to 20/1 in the last ten years and the last winning favourite in 2010 when David Pipe won it with Grands Crus at odds of 6/4. He isn’t represented this season but all the early money has been for Two Taffs (4/1) who arrives here on the back of a win at Carlisle for Dan Skelton over two and a half miles, scoring by over three lengths despite idling once he hit the front. He cruised in to contention that day off a rating of 138 and gets in now off the same mark again here though whether he still represent sufficient value in this competitive race is ever so slightly open to question for the moment though he does seem to be improving at a rate of knots and his stable are in rude health with a 23% strike rate at present.

The likeable Harry Fry has entered Unowhatimeanharry (15/2) here and he is obviously ready for a run and may well take up this entry from a few over the past couple of weeks. He was last seen at the Cheltenham Festival winning the three-mile Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in March by a length and a quarter but that was no fluke as he was winning his fifth consecutive race that day and is clearly pretty decent. Somehow, the handicapper has devalued the form of that race and actually put him down three pounds for that win which must be the temptation to start off with a handicap with the World Hurdle presumably on the long term agenda. He does have the build to go chasing so the future is very bright for the eight-year-old with so many options available and with five winners from his last twenty-two runners we know the stable is in good form as well.

As you would expect at this stage Paul Nicholls is mob-handed here and is fully expected to run at least three come race time headed according to the betting by Caid Du Berlais (7/1) who will have the benefit of Stan Sheppard in the saddle complete with his fiver pound claim. Although he reappeared at Chepstow when a twelve and a half length eighth he improved considerably last time out at Aintree with a three and three quarter length defeat of Goodbye Dancer which he did pretty easily, though it has to be added that was over three miles plus and he will need a fast run race over this trip to be brought to challenge off a rating a full eight pounds higher.

Philip Hobbs is another trainer ticking over nicely with plenty of winners and he is responsible for Kruzhlinin (16/1) who finished third last time out behind Caid Du Berlais who he meets today on fifteen pounds better terms for a fraction short of ten lengths. That certainly makes life pretty interesting between the two of them and may even be enough to turn that form around, and as that was his first completed start of the new season there is every reason to think he could strip that little bit fitter this afternoon as well.

Looking at the betting again and here has been plenty of cash for Dr Richard Newland’s Westren Warrior (8/1) though unless someone is expecting rain of monsoon proportions you have to wonder why. One point to point win and two over hurdles have been obtained on soft at The Pigeons in Ireland and then at Sligo and Lingfield on heavy though to be fair he has handled good ground all be it without success. What he does have is race fitness on his side after a seven length sixth to Golden Doyen at Cheltenham last month over a fraction short of three miles but he also runs off a stone higher than his best ever winning mark so his supporters may well be asking a bit too much of him.

Now that Venetia Williams is in among the winners again it may be worth considering Yala Enki (8/1) here as the six-year-old has his first race of the season after signing off with a fifth to Ballyoptic at Aintree in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle in April. He does have winning form over this sort of trip at Kempton and does look the sort to get better with age though this may be a big ask first time out after a summer off.

To end with Affaire D’Honneur (14/1) looks interesting in first time cheek pieces and off a very low weight of ten stone five with Joshua Moore booked to ride. He did win first time out this season at Fontwell over two miles three by eight lengths in a novice and followed that with a fifth at the same track over shorter but tries two and three quarter miles for the first time and it will be interesting to see if it brings any significant improvement.