Fergal O’Brien sends one horse on the 618-mile round trip to Kelso on Friday 🚛

Simply getting a horse to the races these days is a costly endeavour, with rising fuel prices amongst the factors. With that in mind, when a Gloucestershire-based trainer sends just one runner all the way up to Kelso, it’s worth taking note.

Fergal O’Brien is the trainer in question and he has three winners from five runners at the track so far this season. Clearly he doesn’t like sending horses all that way for nothing and it could be worth looking out for. Check out our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.

1.55 Kelso

Young Buster has made a fine start to his chasing career and is unbeaten in two starts over the larger obstacles. The most recent of those came here at Kelso over a furlong further. That was an impressive performance and he won by a cosy margin of six-and-a-half lengths. The form isn’t particularly strong but he won nicely, despite his jockey briefly losing his irons after the first fence.

O’Brien’s charge won a fair race over 2m4f at Warwick on chase debut in May and that suggests the slight drop in trip from last time out won’t be an issue. The handicapper has put him up 9lb for his latest victory but there should be more to come and he’s undoubtedly one to keep on side until his limitations are exposed.

Fergal O’Brien is in good form recently and is operating at a strike-rate of 29 per cent in the last fortnight. That combined with his 60 per cent strike-rate here at Kelso so far this season bodes well for Young Buster’s chances.

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