Wednesday 23rd September 2020

 


15:50 Redcar

This may be a fairly speculative selection but I think El Picador could be worth chancing to small stakes in this handicap as he’s opened up a slightly bigger price than I was expecting. Keith Dalgleish’s runner didn’t manage to get involved in a race at Ripon last time where he was held up in a race where it very much paid to be up with the pace, but he had caught the eye at Beverley the time before. He finished fifth beaten just over two lengths behind Regal Mirage who lines up here again today, but that finishing position doesn’t give the full picture as El Picador was denied a clear run on multiple occasions and looked to finish full of running.

The selection has a nice pull in the weights with that winner and certainly shouldn’t be over double the price of that rival. The son of Dansili hasn’t been the most consistent sort so I’ll be keeping stakes small but he looks worth chancing to hit the frame with 4 places available.


El Picador 22/1 - 0.5 Points Each-Way



16:05 Goodwood

A typically competitive Goodwood handicap where I think Zhui Feng may well be capable of defying top weight for local trainer Amanda Perrett. He finds himself coming into this off a career low mark despite running a couple of encouraging races this season, which lets him drop down to a class 4 handicap for the first time in his career. One of those encouraging performances came here at Goodwood in late July, there was a bit of money for him late on and he had to switch wide to make his challenge in the straight and probably ran better than his finishing position suggests.

The trip does pose a question mark as he has mainly been running over seven furlongs recents but he did win a 1m2f contest here at Goodwood a few years ago and has been running some very solid races in top handicaps over a mile for the last couple of seasons. Zhui Feng probably doesn’t win as often as he should for a horse of his ability but, with five places on offer, I would recommend using a bookmaker who offers these.


Zhui Feng 17/2 - 0.5 Points Each-Way

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