Pick of the Pundits: Russian War to be won at Newton Abbot

Gordon Elliott and Peter Carberry team up today with Russian War at Newton Abbot and it seems the pundits believe it’s a winning combination.

Only two pundits have napped Russian War today but they happen to be two of the top three performing pundits of the 50 in the field and both Karl Hedley of the Irish Field and Chris Goulding of the Sunday Express are worth listening to.

Punters who follow Hedley’s naps this season are seeing a return of £34.54 to the £1 and those who are following Goluding’s naps are seeing a £13.16 return to the £1.

When the two agree on a nap you can be certain that horse will be in with a great chance and Russian War’s 1/1 odds suggest he is the one to beat today.

14:50 Newton Abbot: Russian War – 1/1

There are only five horses running in this Class 3 Novices’ Chase today and the betting is dominated by Russian War.

Ladbrokes are currently going best price at 1/1 with a number of other bookmakers making Elliott’s horse an odds-on chance.

Chesapeake (9/2), Earth Planet (5/1) and Liberate (9/2) it seems are all battling for second place while Sangfroid is considered the outsider at 10/1.

Only one of the horses has run over this trip and there should be no concerns over Earth Planet’s stamina and he has plenty of confidence in coping with the fences.

Both Russian War and Sangfroid are yet to jump a fence, but Russian War has won four of his last five races over hurdles and should handle the bigger obstacles.

The only question mark against Russian War is his ability to handle the fences but he’s shown enough class over hurdles to suggest he can take this and he looks likely to be followed home in second by Earth Planet.