The jumps season came to a close on Saturday down at Sandown and fans were treated to seeing the mighty Altior doing what he does best winning the Grade 1 celebration chase despite being made to work a little by San Benedeto. The Bet365 Gold Cup went to Mark Bradstock’s Step Back who claimed the 84k prize money under a superb ride from Jamie Moore but from now on it’s full steam ahead with the Flat Season with the Qipco Guineas being this coming weekend from Newmarket. There’s six meetings in total today with Thirsk Salisbury and Wolverhampton this afternoon while there are twilight fixtures from Southwell, Windsor and over in Ireland from Kilbeggan.
My selection today comes this evening from Windsor where I’m fancying Henry Candy’s Past Master (9/4) to claim the 19:10 class 4 handicap over 1m2f. At first look this may be a strange selection considering that this five-year-old grey has only ran three times in two and a half years. His debut came way back in August 2015 at Sandown where he was slowly away before finishing strongly to claim third just over four lengths behind twice Group 3 winner Stormy Antarctic.
Off the back of that race a month later he was sent to Salisbury and went off at 5/2 but was slightly disappointing and was very much one paced inside the final two furlongs to finish fourth of twelve. After two years off the track this son of Mastercraftsman was then sent to Lingfield for an all-weather contest over 1m2f, a significant step up in trip. This seemed to suit him down to a tee as he was held up early on but finished extremely strongly to claim second behind the 11/10 market favourite, Dash Of Spice.
Past Master still has a handicap mark of 77 which I feel is very generous when considering that last run at Lingfield back in December and he appears as if he is still open for lots of improvement. Trainer Henry Candy has had 2 winners from his last 5 runners over the last two weeks and incidentally both of those winners were favourites priced at 5/2 and 6/5. Fran Berry takes the ride this evening and at the current price of 9/4 I’m going to recommend a solid 1pt win bet to hopefully get our week off to a cracker.
19:10 Windsor - Class 4 Handicap - 1m2f - Past Master 9/4 - 1pt Win