THE INSIDER
I understand that Newbury will be busy this afternoon with lots of City types, so let’s hope you picked up your copy of Morning Wire before heading to the races.
I prefer jump racing when I have plenty of recent form to go on and can work out the well-handicapped from the unfit. The obvious race to get stuck into today is the 1.35pm Sportingbet.com Handicap Hurdle.
David Pipe saddles a grand servant in Buena Vista who hacked up in the Pertemps Hurdle Final at Cheltenham in March. He’s still a very decent hurdler at the age of nine but I think he may not quite make this prize his own. He has to carry top weight, while at the bottom of the handicap Nigel Twiston-Davies’ runner COTSWOLD CHARMER (5% win) has the feather weight of 10st1lb, minus his young rider’s very useful three pound claim. My rule is to back Twiston runners until the New Year and then not again until Cheltenham.
There are a couple of nice races at Kempton Park tomorrow. The 3.15pm Listed contest over a mile is intriguing. I’m very keen on THE CHEKA (3% win) but I don’t want to leave out VIVA VETTORI who has a wonderful record here, so my recommendation would be a (2% reverse forecast). In the 3.50pm, NIDEEB (5% win), who won us the money at Lingfield last weekend, runs again. I’m sure he can follow-up as I think he will be even better back at Kempton.