Newcastle best bet: Red Treasure best equipped to challenge firm favourite
Great Colaci ridden by Joe Fanning (red silks) wins The Betfair Weighed In Podcast Handicap Stakes from Perfect Soldier (blue silks) at Newcastle Racecourse.
After kicking off the month with a tidy 7/2 winner on Thursday (advised at 11/2), Tipstrr racing pundit Steve Jones is hoping for more of the same from his Daily Bargain in Newcastle’s opening race.
16:05 Newcastle: BetUK Home of the Acca-Fenwa Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap (1 mile 2 furlongs)
Best equipped to challenge the favourite appears to be Red Treasure, an Ed Dunlop-trained four-year-old filly who is drawn right on the inside today and has a performance pattern that shows she much prefers tapeta to the much quicker polytrack surface on which she was well-held at Lingfield last time.
In stark contrast, the performance she produced just prior to Lingfield saw her finish a close-up second of nine in a 9.5-furlong handicap at Wolverhampton.
Planet Sport Bet: Bet £20+ cash on any runner in the race and if the favourite (inc. joint) wins, get a £5 Free Bet
It was a 0-72 contest in which she ran off the top mark of 72 (identical circumstances to today) and she managed to beat all except the three-year-old winner who is now rated higher than today’s field, and she was a couple of lengths clear of the rest, despite having been hampered coming out of the stalls.
The filly is still unexposed over 10 furlongs, and she proved at Wolverhampton, where she was doing her best work in the closing stages, that she has a lot of potential over this trip on this surface.
Now 5lbs lower than when she was contesting Class 4 handicaps last summer, Red Treasure must have a strong chance of landing a very moderate Class 5 under these conditions.
Suggested best bet: Red Treasure in the 16:05 at Newcastle
- Tips and analysis provided by Steve Jones who runs CD Systems Daily Bargain on Tipstrr
Of the others, Brunello Breeze appears to be the right favourite on the back of last month’s comfortable win over this course and distance, when he was dropped down from 12.5 furlongs, a distance over which he had won, also on this track, just two runs earlier (in November).
Now that he is in this sort of form, he remains very attractively handicapped, even off his revised mark of 63, because he was rated higher than this when he began his handicapping career as a thre-year-old, almost winning off 64 on his handicap turf debut.
Given that he is still to win on turf after 15 attempts, whilst he has managed to win twice on synthetics (both times at this track) from a total of only four all-weather outings, it is clear that he is a better performer in this sphere and especially on this preferred track.
Next Best bet: Brunello Breeze in the 16:05 at Newcastle
READ MORE: Newcastle racing tips: Best best for Friday February 2
