Navan top racing tip: Cheltenham hero McKenna can bring best out of Don't Go Yet
- Steve Jones
- 20 March 2023
With the Cheltenham Festival behind us, the National Hunt season presses on and Tipstrr horse racing expert Steve Jones has picked out Don’t Go Yet as his best bet from Navan’s race card.
Looking beyond the early market leader, Carbon King, who has to overcome a 16-pound rise for winning a weaker handicap, there is some potential value elsewhere, not least with Don't Go Yet, who ran a lot better than his finishing position suggests in a stronger handicap at Gowran Park last month.
That contest was run over a two-and-a-half-mile trip, which is significantly further than the nine-year-old's optimum distance of 16-17 furlongs, and although he was right there with a chance and pressing the leaders, he inevitably faded after the second-last to finish seventh of 19.
Don't Go Yet can be expected to come on again for his first outing in this sphere for quite some time, especially as he now drops back down to his best trip and returns to a track where he has won before.
The last time Don't Go Yet ran in a handicap hurdle over two miles was as a six-year-old but it was only three hurdling outings ago, when he went close to winning a 14-runner handicap on soft-heavy ground at Fairyhouse.
A similar effort under these similar conditions will give Don't Go Yet a big chance and Liam McKenna appears to be a shrewd booking on his first ride since riding Pertemps Handicap winner Good Time Jonny at the Cheltenham Festival last Thursday.
Don't Go Yet, who loves testing ground and who has a good record at this track, actually enjoyed one of his best hurdling efforts over this trip as a six-year-old when he finished fifth of 21 in a maiden hurdle over heavy ground.
Off a hurdling mark that is now 14 pounds lower than his chasing mark, Don't Go Yet has plenty more going for him than his early prices reflect.
Next best bet: By Your Side
Of the others, Gordon Elliott's four-year-old, By Your Side, has been gradually progressing in defeat and these conditions look ideal for him following a couple of very solid runs at Naas.
He has beaten 38 of the 45 rivals he has faced in three successive two-mile handicaps and would have beaten more but for mistakes at the final flight in each of the last two.
