Channel 4 Racing: Moore to score big on handicap-heavy card
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Saturday’s Channel 4 Racing Card sees handicaps take centre-stage at Doncaster and Newbury.
Ladbrokes are joining in the fun and games with an insurance promotion to offer encouragement to punters eyeing a big-price fancy.
The Betfred Mile, the Lincoln and the EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Final are on the bill of fare and, if your selection finishes second in a race involving more than four runners, the company will refund the stake as a free bet.
Full terms and conditions can be found here. Read on for the three of the card’s most likely winners…
Given the regularity with which Irish master David O’Meara strikes in these big handicaps, the site of his sole runner in the contest available at comfortably double-figure odds is hard to ignore.
Maraakib further commends himself by virtue of having scored in three of his last four outings, including once on Town Moor, while there were plausible excuses for his sole reverse during that sequence.
He has scored over both 7f and 1m2f so has the capability of doing the business however the race transpires, and has never been out of the frame in four runs on good-to-soft.
The ability to stay further is likely to prove more pertinent here, with plenty of pace about and one of his victories at the longer trip came on the current soft ground too.
Ryan Moore rides for Jeremy Noseda, but that’s just the thin end of the wedge of positives for this four-year-old, who runs under a 5lb penalty.
That supposedly punitive measure could be inadequate given the way his recent Wolverhampton success has been working out.
Perfect Cracker (in second) scored off 3lbs higher next time, while third-placed Our Channel has hit the bullseye in both his races since.
The fourth hasn’t been out again, but fifth-placed Pactolus has also gone in since.
Jim Crowley rode that day and admitted afterwards he hadn’t intended to make the running, suggesting Moore’s mount could be even better if held up.
Noel Williams’ mare is the joint-fourth highest-rated hurdler in the contest and is substantially better off at the weights, with two of those above him in the handicap, Ruby Rambler and Surtee Du Berlais, despite finishing 18 lengths-plus ahead of them earlier this term.
Rated the same as when scoring by over 3l last time, the drier conditions are expected to aid her pursuit of another victory off the same mark.
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