Something In The Ayr For Vicente

Newmarket’s Craven meeting saw the flat season go up a few notches this week and although the Greenham is on at Newbury today it looks a fairly straightforward assignment for Expert Eye and not a race that will attract much betting interest.

However, ahead of the Punchestown Festival and a possible race of the season in the BoyleSports.com Champion Chase on Tuesday, the Scottish Grand National meeting at Ayr takes centre stage today and provides some good betting opportunities.

Nicholls To Tame Puppy
BoyleSports racing ambassador Robbie Power has already got the English and Irish Grand Nationals on his CV and will be hoping to add the Scottish version at his first attempt today when riding Sizing Tennessee. Puppy won’t be without his chance as the veteran has ran to a good level this year and should have the ground and trip in his favour, however, the treble seeking Vicente is preferred.

This will need to be a career best effort from Paul Nicholls’ nine-year-old but he just seems to love it here and on this sounder surface over this sort of trip he is a hard horse to ignore.

Paul Nicholls took Vicente out of the English National last week because of the ground and the fact that he wasn’t prepared to roll the dice in the £1m race could well be a sign of confidence that he feels there was a big pot to be landed in more suitable conditions today. You’ve to go back a long way to find a three-time winner of this race but…

Vicente can be the first to complete the hat-trick since the 1950’s.

Claim Hendo’s In The Champion
It’ll be a strange Punchestown Festival to see Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson so lightly represented but then it is no surprise that they don’t want to come to Punchestown to get a similar hammering from Willie and Gordon to what they got at Cheltenham.

The decision not to send Supreme Novices’ Hurdle fifth, Claimantakinforgan, for a crack at the Herald Champion Novice Hurdle on Tuesday could result in a positive result for Henderson though as the six-year-old might just land the Scottish Champion Hurdle.

A winner of some decent races earlier in the season, Claimantakinforgan had his form boosted last weekend at Aintree by Lostintranslation and while this year’s renewal of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle might not throw up a whole host of starts, Claimantakinforgan looks to be nicely treated and with a lovely racing weight thanks to Ch’tibello staying in at the top…

so should be hard to beat.

Recommended Bets:
Claimantakinforgan (7/1) – 2.55 Ayr
Vicente (8/1) – 4.05 Ayr

*Prices correct at time of publication.