Newcastle top tips (1640): Tropez Power and Talis Evolvere carry each-way hopes in wide-open handicap
Runners and riders at Newcastle racecourse
Newcastle’s All-Weather Championship Finals conclude with what should be a thrilling contest along the only all-weather straight one-mile track in the world, with a challenging uphill finish to boot.
16:40 Newcastle: BetMGM All-Weather Championships Mile Handicap (1 mile)
It appears that Dear My Friend will carry the favourite mantle, and there’s certainly plenty to like about Charlie Johnston’s four-year-old, who won his first two turf outings as a juvenile in 2022.
He remains unbeaten in four efforts on the all-weather, including three on the spin so far this year, the first of which was over this course and distance on New Year’s Day.
Symbol Of Light finished a couple of lengths behind Dear My Friend in that course-distance-race, so he must represent the biggest threat now 15 pounds better off, while Fast Raj, Fantastic Fox and Kingdom Come all hold realistic claims after all winning last time out.
The remaining nine runners are all available at double-digit prices, and with extra places again up for grabs, there are also plenty of options for Tipstrr’s each-way pundits to consider, and a case for a frame finish can be made for most of them.
Michael Appleby’s Zealot hasn’t yet fired since returning from an 11-month break, but it’s worth remembering that he was a serial winner last winter, winning seven of his nine all-weather outings, four of them over this distance.
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Gaining most traction within the Tipstrr camp, however, is Tropez Power, who is also looking to rekindle his prolific form of a year ago, when he produced figures of 13212 from his five all-weather appearances.
The five-year-old is yet to reach those heights in three efforts this term, but he looked back to his fluent best when fourth of ten (less than two lengths behind the winner) over this distance at Southwell last time out 24 days ago.
On New Year’s Day he had finished ninth behind Dear My Friend and Symbol Of Light, but he will line up here 19lb and 5lb better off against each of those respectively, and with first-time cheekpieces applied, we can expect a closer contest here.
Popular each-way punt : Tropez Power each-way in the 16:40 at Newcastle
- Tip advised by The King of Horses on Tipstrr
A similar argument can be made for Richard Hannon’s Talis Evolvere, who has put together figures of 21212 in his five all-weather outings over a mile since November.
The four-year-old can surely be forgiven for trailing in last of 12 in his most recent outing at Lingfield earlier this month, the experiment of trying him over an unsuitable 10 furlongs clearly backfired, and he should be much more effective now back down to his preferred one-mile trip.
Despite that setback he remains five pounds above his last winning mark, but that has been immediately negated by the astute booking of five-pound claimer Joe Leavy, making him effectively seven pounds better off against Fantastic Fox, to whom he had finished a half-length runner-up on his last one-mile outing in January.
Next best each-way bet : Talis Evolvere each-way in the 16:40 at Newcastle
- Tip advised by OPAL Horses on Tipstrr
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