Friday All-Weather Feast & a 62/1 Treble!

Legendary chasers Altior and Native River may well line up at Newbury this weekend, forming a cracking card alongside the Betfair Hurdle. Action there and Warwick forms part of an informative day’s racing on ITV as we lead towards Cheltenham, for which we have an Antepost acca live on site.

Last week’s Treble landed thanks to the intervention of the Stewards at Dundalk. Hugo Palmer’s El Ghazwani did the business at Lingfield prior to the well-backed Matewan gamely clinging on to score at Newcastle. We were then waiting on Joseph O’Brien’s Mr Mooj. Sent off 8/11, he was continuously hampered in the closing two furlongs by the eventual winner. Awarded the race, he landed our 17/1 Treble!

We’ll be hoping for more of the same here with action from Chelmsford, Dundalk and Southwell. Be sure to check out our tips and analysis, as well as our Free Bets.

Course Specialist

4.40 Southwell: The Eagle’s Nest

Alexandra Dunn’s THE EAGLE’S NEST was winless in over three years before heading to Southwell in January. After an underwhelming run of form on other synthetic surfaces, the gelding rather unsurprisingly was un-fancied in the market.

Despite that, Daniel Muscutt’s charge knuckled down under a strong drive from his rider to score by half-a-length. More impressive than the margin was the way that he picked up off the pace, something that’s easier said than done on Fibresand.

There was considerably more market support a week later. Sent off favourite dropped back to seven, the gelding once more picked up strongly to defy a penalty. He has another penalty to contend with today, leaving him on a mark of 59. However, in this amateur contest, his rider claims a massive seven pounds. Very well treated and two-from-two here, he has strong claims of completing a quick fire hat-trick.

Top Trainer

5.45 Chelmsford: Express Route

Charlie Appleby and his Godolphin battalion have a fantastic record at the Essex venue. The yard have had two winners from just three runners at the track in 2020, and operate at a remarkable 39% strike-rate with their three-year-olds on the All-Weather over the past five seasons.

The stable is in fine form both over at Meydan and at home, with their last fourteen runners yielding five winners, two seconds and three thirds. Confidence will no doubt be high as they send their EXPRESS ROUTE to Chelmsford for his racecourse debut tonight. He fetched an eye-watering $975,000 as a yearling, related to a Grade Three winner over in the US.

The Quality Road gelding faces little in the way of danger on his debut. Of those who’ve raced so far, Pryamid Place has achieved the most in posting an RPR of 69 last time out. It would be surprising if the US-bred gelding wasn’t capable of eclipsing that here and bolting in.

Top Jockey

7.00 Dundalk: Roachdale House

Declan McDonogh has been making hay at Dundalk in 2020. He’s had six winners from eighteen rides there in the early stages of the year. Four of those have come in the last fortnight from just five rides. The 24th January saw him ride 11/10 and 11/2 chances to success and he justified favouritism on his two rides including the aforementioned Mr Mooj last Friday.

There’s no jockey in better form in Ireland or in the UK than him in recent weeks. He has a book of five rides this Friday, with the best chance of success coming in the form of ROACHDALE HOUSE. Rated 91 at his peak, he finished a creditable fourth over ten furlongs from a mark of 58 two weeks ago.

That effort came on his first start since September. It’s fair to assume he’ll be capable of showing more tonight. The step up to twelve furlongs is a big positive judged on the way he ran on there, closest at the finish. He’s unexposed over middle distances on the level and is partnered by the red hot McDonogh. A big run has to be anticipated.