Chester best bet: Castle In The Sand to land for Oisin Murphy and Andrew Balding
- Thomas Ridley
- 8 May 2024
The Chester meeting sees the cream of the Flat racing crop in action and the Tipstrr camp have their eyes on the penultimate race of the day, with eight coming to post in a dash for the finish line.
16:10 Chester: ESL Export Maiden Stakes (1 mile 2 1/2 furlongs)
Gallantly is the clear favourite in this one and is coming off the back of a near miss at Leopardstown.
Aidan O'Brien's three-year-old was second last time out and was resuming after a winter break.
It will be interesting to see how the colt gets on with a slight step up in trip and if he improves as expected then there's every chance of a trip to the winners enclosure.
With three places available, there's some good each-way value to be had and Liam Swagger could be one to watch with juicy odds of 12/1.
The James-Owen-trained colt looked good at Windsor last week when he was second, beaten by just a neck.
However, the step up in company could prove tricky for him.
Our selection for this one is Andrew Balding's Castle In The Sand with the ever-dependable Oisin Murphy in the saddle.
Its been the case of always the bridesmaid, never the bride for Castle In The Sand, with his last four outings seeing the three-year-old finish second.
He has been stepping up in trip recently and his last outing at Windsor over one mile and two furlongs saw him lose out to hot-favourite Deira Mile.
The booking of Murphy is an astute one with the jockey having a 22 percent strike rate this year and he won a Gold Cup trial aboard Coltrane last week, so he has landed a big winner already this season.
At odds of 10/3, Castle In The Sand has the potential to land punters a tidy profit.
Suggested best bet: Castle In The Sand to win the 16:10 at Chester
