Twiston A Great Shout At Newbury

The Betfair Hurdle is one of the most competitive handicap hurdles of the season but there’s one horse that could turn it into a walk in the park and despite a lack of experience, he is surely worth taking a side with.

Cheltenham Winner Well In
There’s little to split Movewiththetimes and Ballyandy on their form, their handicap ratings and their experience but it is the latter who is selected to oblige.

The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Ballyandy was well fancied when claiming the Champion Bumper last season and although he is actually still a maiden over hurdles, this lucrative pot would be a nice way to change that.

The six-year-old has had to deal with Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Moon Racer twice and he was again beaten favourite at Sandown back in December and maybe it will prove a case that the handicapper has assessed him accurately.

Although, from this corner, a mark of 135 looks quite sympathetic and hopefully it’s a rating he is able to exploit.

Jack Kennedy goes to Newbury for Gordon Elliott to ride Veinard who has been busy since winning at Clonmel in November and while Gordon is winning all around him this season, this looks to be too big an ask for his eight-year-old.

Robbie’s No Moon Man
The concluding bumper at Newbury features an Irish raider and one that is worth taking note of. It would appear that the Irish bumpers this season have been extremely competitive and of a very high standard so although Robbie McNamara might have been disappointed when the well-backed Cosmo’s Moon could only finish fifth at Naas, it turns out that he may have still ran a very creditable race on debut.

Denis O’Regan goes over to ride the four-year-old and thus gets off a Barry Connell-owned horse at Naas and Cosmo’s Moon looks capable of opening his account here.

The Naas bumper in which he was fifth was won by Red Jack with Debuchet back in second. Since then, Debuchet has bolted up at Leopardstown and I See You Well, the horse that was behind Cosmo’s Moon in Naas has also won a maiden hurdle for Shark Hanlon. It’s solid form and I’d be surprised if McNamara isn’t rewarded for his travels.

Tizzard To Get Back In The Groove
It looked at one stage as if Colin Tizzard could do absolutely no wrong but the last couple of weeks have been just a little tougher with Alary failing to impress on his English debut and Thistlecrack getting turned over at Cheltenham.

Both Native River and Fox Norton appear on Saturday and both face difficult opposition, most notably Fox Norton who takes on the novice, Altior.

Many won’t want to get involved this weekend and will prefer to take a watching brief and make a judgement on Native River for the Gold Cup and Fox Norton for the Champion Chase after what they see on Saturday, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Native River get the better of Bristol De Mai and Fox Norton turn over Altior.

Recommended Bets:
Bristol De Mai (6/5) – 2:25 Newbury
Fox Norton (3/1) – 3:00 Newbury
Ballyandy (4/1) – 3:35 Newbury
Cosmo’s Moon (9/1) – 4:45 Newbury

*Prices correct at time of publication