Sean Bowen has a good book of rides at Perth as he continues his pursuit of Harry Cobden in the jockeys’ title race and Sure Touch looks his best chance of bagging a winner in the Phil Nelson River Tay Handicap Chase.
It is a really competitive five-runner field with top weight A Different Kind setting a good standard off a mark of 145, looking for a fifth win in a row for Donald McCain.
But Olly Murphy’s Sure Touch is seeking a hat-trick of his own following wins at Uttoxeter and Taunton.
The first win came on heavy ground and the latter on good, so he is obviously versatile in that regard and employed different tactics both days.
Cepage is down to his last winning mark and Willie Mullins runs Feu Du Bresil, but Sure Touch has plenty going for him.
In the AK Bets Best Price Premier League Handicap Hurdle, Murphy and Bowen team up with Secret Trix who has been thoroughly consistent all year.
He has won four times and been second twice and seemingly does not know how to run a bad race.
Having won a class two last time out he is actually dropping in grade for this event and given that was his first run for five months, he may even come on a bit.
Nicky Henderson’s Bective Abbey was sent off a short price on his debut at Doncaster in a race won by a stablemate so he clearly did not give his true running.
The fact he has been off since December also suggests he did not return 100 per cent that day but he had clearly been showing up well at home and with the yard back among the winners, he is taken to come out on top in the first division of the Charlie Wilson Memorial Maiden Hurdle at Warwick.
Kintail is another Henderson runner coming back from a break in the Visit racingtv.com Handicap Hurdle.
The Seven Barrows handler should also be on the mark at Huntingdon where his Lady d’Arbanville holds strong claims in the Racing TV Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.
She won a Plumpton bumper and was a fair second on her first outing over timber back in January.
There is plenty of speed in the pedigree of the William Haggas-trained Kallippos, who lines up in the IRE Incentive, It Pays To Buy Irish Fillies’ Rest’ Novice Stakes at Beverley.
By Kodiac, she is the first foal out of a six-furlong winner who is related to the Group One scorer Elm Park.
Andrew Balding’s Dambuster stands out in the Still Alive At 75 Kathie Emery Novice Stakes.
The Kingman gelding won on debut at Sandown and looked a very smart prospect in the process with Balding sending him for the Group Three Zetland Stakes won by Arabian Crown.
Newmarket did not appear to suit at all, with him finishing tailed off but gelded since, and with a winter on his back, he can make up into a useful performer this season.
Billy Loughnane won a Group Three in Germany over the weekend and can bag another winner on Kevin Frost’s Daaris in the 6 horses Challenge At bet365 Handicap at Chelmsford.
IRISH NEWS YANKEE
NAP: Sure Touch (4.10: Perth)
DOUBLE: Secret TriX (4.45: Perth)
TREBLE: Bective Abbey (1.30: Warwick)
YANKEE: Kallippos (2.10: Beverley)
