15:25 Navan Cleofila

There looks to be nothing between Kissed and Cleofila in terms of form in the book. If anything Cleofila won a better race at 2, as the runner up Coral Wave went on to G3 & Listed Success. Given Aob’s usually improve for a run the price difference between the two looks silly, 4/6 for Kissed and 3/1 Cleofila. Given all that the 3/1 about Cleofila has to be taken

2 Points win Cleofila 3/1

Long Shot Saturday

16:30 Punchestown  AES Champion Four Year Old Hurdle
Darroun  will have conditions to suit tomorrow. He has had two excellent runs in softer going in Ireland just loosing out to Shadow Catcher and beating Hisaabaat showing excellent resolution both times. Admittedly he got run of his feet in the vastly different Triumph Hurdle, but that has resulted in him being a big looking 14/1 for tomorrows race. I think the grind of tomorrows race will suit him and he can confirm form with both horses who are far shorter in the betting.

2 Points Win 14/1 BoyleSports

14:00 Sandown, Bet365 Handicap Hurdle
Star Of Angels was selected by me at Aintree but he clearly didn’t stay the trip. He has good form on softer going and is back to probably his best trip tomorrow. He was a very consistent horse before his very long break and did win a decent Handicap on soft ground this year. He still looks on a decent enough mark for his best form and in a very open race could well outrun his 12/1 price at the moment. I got a small bit of 14/1 but that is gone now.

1 pt win 12/1 Various

15:10 Sandown bet365 Gold Cup Chase
Ouzbeck is just a case of price. He is far too big on Betfair, and although he supposedly wont act on Soft ground, really there is no way of knowing as he has hardly ever faced it before. His last run was obviously eye catching, where he ran like a pig but flew at the end. There wont be many tomorrow finishing with any speed, and although me might get behind early on hell be still capable of getting involved. He is off a very workable mark considering he has run well of 10-11 lbs higher. The 27 win on Betfair looks too big and worth a small bet.

1 pt Win 27 Betfair

15:50 Punchestown Guinness Handicap Chase

Dancing Tornado has been a very consistent chaser for the last year or two. He was poor in the Cross Country this year at the festival, but it didn’t appear to suit him from the start and this 2m4f chase will be much more to his liking. He has a decent enough looking spin over hurdles earlier this month and given that he is 4lbs lower than his good 5th in the Kerry National on Soft Ground the conditions that prevail tomorrow shouldn’t pose a problem. He has a nice racing weight here and if the application of first time blinkers can improve him at all the current price on Betfair is going to look very good.

1pt win 25 Betfair

15:10 Sandown bet365 Gold Cup Chase

Viking Blond is still a novice and has run well a few times this year. He was very disappointing in the Welsh National, but has shown a liking in the past for softer ground. He’ll be in here with a very nice racing weight of 10:00 and that will have to help for this stamina test. For me it is somewhat significant that he is sent out again on soft over the long trip after that poor national run, and his trainer is in cracking form at the moment. He seems to have an excellent chance of placing at least and the 20/1 with 5 places available on paddy Power looks too big.

1 Point EW 20/1 12345 Paddy Power

18:05 Punchestown Texas Jack

Texas Jack does have a fair amount to make up on some of these here, but this ground is a great leveller, and he is more proven on it that some of these. He has always been highly thought of and although he was poor enough last time out at Fairyhouse, my gut feeling is that he might just have a better shot here on this ground. The current 50/1 available looks worth a min bet.

 

½ point EW 50/1 BoyleSports

18:05 Punchestown Sweet Shock

Sweet Shock has a decent record on heavy ground, but more importantly this trainer has in the past got a few ready at a time and his other runner yesterday was backed and running well when he fell. He has won a very decent race on heavy at Naas last year of around this mark, and apart from his last run over fences his form this year has been decent enough. He’s worth a small bet at 25/1 EW as my gut feeling is he’ll be backed today and hopefully his proven heavy ground form will come into play.

 

½  pt EW 25/1 Coral

Update

Great Day today with Right Step winning and First Avenue just failing to get up in the dying strides at a huge price. Turner Brown was backed into 10/1 and racing prominently when he fell and Jezki was a non-runner.

Ive updated the Pricewise Challenge stats and it now stands at Pricewise -26 Longshotvalue +22.86.

 

14:50 Epsom First Avenue

First Avenue  is a case here of being sure to act on the ground with a light weight and has run a very good race over further last week on similar ground. If he can repeat that run in this admittedly better race he would stand a good change of placing as a lot of the field are unknowns on this ground. 22/1 ew with BetVictor looks too big .

 

½ point EW 22/1 BetVictor

18:05 Punchestown Jezki

Jezki has better form in the book than most of the field here apart from the top 2 in the market. He ran a decent race in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, and has 2 good wins in Leopardstown bumpers before that. The trainer is well known for producing winners here and his current price on Betfair seems ridiculously big at 46 win and 9.6 place. In particular the place price seems very good given his form and the host of unknowns here.

 

½ Point win 46 1 Point place 9.6 Betfair

15:55 Epsom Right Step

Right Step has a lot going for him today, he was second in a very similar race over c&d last year of 7lbs higher and he is fit from hurdling where he won his maiden. He did end last year on a bit of a downswing but that has given him his good mark today. He is closely matched with Resurge but has a couple of pounds in hand from their last c&d run and is much higher priced. The 16/1 Available with Boylesports looks well overpriced as id have him for a 9 or 10/1 shot

 

1 Point win 16/1 Boylesports

15:40 Punchestown Turner Brown

Turner Brown has an exceptional course record on soft/heavy ground. He is back down to below his last winning mark. With one of this trainers horses there is always the risk that today isn’t the day, and it’ll probably be obvious before the off if there is no money for him. But on my reading there is certainly a better than 25/1 chance that he might get backed and have a going day.

 

1 pt EW 25/1 Boyle Sports