BEST of the BETS

Gordon Elliott has some good chances today across 3 meetings, I have put a couple of his in a little double, hopefully I have chosen the right ones.

3:10 Wexford - feature race of the meeting, and despite the small field it looks a good contest between CHAMPAGNE CLASSIC (11/8) and Discorama. Discorama probably would have finished ahead of his rival had he not fallen at the last at Naas in January, but with the 5 lbs allowance CC gets puts him 2 lbs ahead on official ratings and he also has the fitness advantage over Discorama. Elliott has had the runner up in this race last two years but I think he has a good chance of going one better this time, his overall record at the meeting is 10 winners from 36 runners.

3:55 Ayr - all newcomers in this bumper, so live betting could be a good guide. Elliott’s record in bumpers at Ayr reads 2122213216, and improves to 1121 if they are favourite, so it’s interesting that MR CAPLAN (2/1) is currently the favourite. Nicky Richards has won this race with a couple of good horses in past though, so Legal Beagle could be a big danger, and Phil Kirby also gets bumper winners.

Small win double.

Few other Elliott horses I considered, but I felt favourites have strong chance in all these races.

12:50 Wexford - Zambezi Fix, tailed off on his debut at Punchestown festival but interesting that he was sent off 2nd favourite and he is related to couple of horses that won at Grade 3 and Listed levels in France so likely is he is capable of better. McManus has the front two in betting though and both look good horses (edit: favourite taken out now)

2:20 Galway - on the face of it, Joe Power wouldn’t need to be anything special to win a week looking race but the favourite is from Aidan O’Brien and you get the feeling she may do better than her 71 rating.

4:20 Wexford - similar profiles for Axiomatic and Battling Warrior as they performed similarly in two different bumpers at Punchestown festival, BW’s race looks slightly better to me though, and Jonathan Sweeney does very well in bumpers, including a win with a very well backed newcomer here yesterday.

I have put in Magic Fountain (11/10) and Battling Warrior (7/4) with my earlier double to make up a rather optimistic four-fold.

Good luck.