Find all previous Seymour Biz racing previews in his weekly column: Saturday Horse Racing Tips.
Two courses at the opposite end of the country are being televised this week with five races from Newbury backed up by three more from Newcastle. Both courses feature top class 2m hurdles which should show how good Soaring Glory and Epatante are, those are at Newbury and Newcastle respectively.
Added to these, it looks like a great Saturday for handicap chases so there should be plenty of value to be found in what are some really tricky contests. So here are my thoughts for this week’s Lucky Fifteen.
Saturday Lucky Fifteen
1.15 Newbury. Kalooki
3.00 Newbury. Eklat de Rire
3.35 Newbury. Il Ridoto
2.05 Newcastle. Good Boy Bobby
Bet this lucky 15 now on Bet365
Beginning with the card at Newbury the first televised race is at 1.15 the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Memorial Handicap Chase where Nicky Henderson’s Dame de Compagnie has top weight. She is having her first run since May when she was well beaten at Punchestown and I can’t help thinking Henderson has his eye on bigger prizes for his mare.
Henry de Bromhead sends over Somptueux who flopped badly in the Galway Plate in July but he had a good record the previous season and his trainer had the winner of the Betfair Chase last week. He can make the frame.
Kalooki was a course and distance winner last year for Phillip Hobbs and had a consistent season after that he is another who can go well.
Colin Tizzard sends a couple of likely contenders the best of which could be Kauto The King who won at Wincanton earlier this month but this is a step up in class.
Emma Lavelle’s Killer Clown ran a fine second here in the Greatwood last March and has had an outing at Aintree in October but needs to improve on that to make the frame. So I will settle for Hobbs’ Kalooki to open his seasonal account here.
The big race of the day is the Ladbrokes Trophy Chase at 3.00 run over 3m 2f. This prestigious contest formally known as the Hennessy has only had three horses that have won this race twice one of which was the great Arkle and I really can’t see Jonjo O’Neill’s Cloth Cap adding his name to that roll of honour. He has 18lbs more to carry than last year and after being pulled up in the Grand National, he did not impress with his jumping at Cheltenham last month.
Irish trainers come here with a strong contingent but all of them have been handed high weights by the handicapper filling five of the first six places on the card.
Henry de Bromhead has Eklat de Rire who has only tasted defeat twice in his seven-race career. He unseated Rachel Blackmore in the Brown Novices Chase at the Cheltenham Festival when going well. He should take all the beating.
Willie Mullins won this race in 2017 and has Ontheropes here who won going away at Limerick last month. He could be anything.
Paul Nicholls’s Enrilo is fancied. He won well here at Newbury last February then ‘won’ at Sandown in April only to lose the race in Steward’s room. He will be tested in this company.
Another who will be tested is Colin Tizzard’s Fiddlerontheroof who ran consistently well last year and started this campaign off well with a victory at Carlisle, he may claim a place.
Another who could be placed at a big price is Henry Daly’s Fortescue. He had two fine wins at the end of last season and was placed in a classy contest at Kelso last month. But Eklat de Rire looks the sort to keep the de Bromhead bandwagon rolling along.
At 3.35 it is the Watch Racing Free Online At Ladbrokes Handicap Chase run at just over 2 miles. Sam Thomas’s Grey Diamond is fancied to go well here after his good third at Ascot last month. He had Frero Banbou, Sully d’Oc Aa and Getaway Trump behind him that day and I expect him to confirm those placings.
Dan Skelton’s Eclair d’Ainay was consistent last season and has had a blow already at Wetherby this time around, he will be close.
Nicky Henderson’s Elusive Belle won over this course and distance last November but may need this first outing to show her best.
But Paul Nicholls has a young horse lurking at the bottom of the handicap, Il Ridoto. He has shown good form in France and on his first run in the UK, he acquitted himself well when finishing third at Newton Abbot.
I am sure Nicholls will be wishing the heavens open as both his wins in France have come on heavy going and the forecast looks like it will suit him.
At Newcastle, we have the Betfair Exchange Rehearsal Handicap Chase at 2.05 a race won by trainer Sandy Thomson last year with Yorkhill and he has targeted it again with a pair of likely contenders.
They are Dingo Dollar and The Ferry Master, the former was a course and distance winner in March then was runner-up in the Scottish National where he had several of these behind him, including stablemate The Ferry Master who was fourth. He had an outing at Kelso in October finishing out of the frame.
The Ferry Master is also a c and d winner and he had a blow at the beginning of this month at Musselburgh where he finished tired.
Iain Jardine’s Cool Mix ran a good third at Cheltenham in October but he comes here out of the handicap and this is a big ask.
Spiritofthegames has not won since 2018 and I can’t see Dan Skelton’s gelding breaking that sequence in a hot contest like this after finishing no closer than ninth on his latest outing at Cheltenham a fortnight ago.
Nigel Twiston-Davies’s Good Boy Bobby looks the one to be on after winning on his seasonal reappearance at Wetherby last month, it could pay to follow him this season.
Saturday Lucky Fifteen
1.15 Newbury. Kalooki
3.00 Newbury. Eklat de Rire
3.35 Newbury. Il Ridoto
2.05 Newcastle. Good Boy Bobby
Bet this lucky 15 now on Bet365
Related Reading