Windsor 17:35 - 1m Class 5 Handicap - Zlatan 13/2 - 0.5pt each way
The big race meetings come thick and fast around this time year and off the back of Aintree we have the Craven meeting to look forward to from Newmarket this week ahead of the Punchestown Festival over in Ireland the week after. And with the guineas just over three weeks away it’s time to get those flat horses into the tracker and start prepping for summer season.
There’s four meetings in total today from all corners of the British Isles with National Hunt fixtures from Kelso and Tramore whilst there are flat meetings from Punchestown and Windsor. And it’s from down in Berkshire this evening where my tip of the day comes in the form of the fantastically named ZLATAN (13/2).
Trained by Ed De Giles, Zlatan comes here off the back of two mediocre runs on the all weather at Kempton. The latest of those came just over a month ago in a Class 4 race over 1m where he finished 4th less than two lengths behind the winner, Believe It. Those runs at Kempton are his only two this calendar year and I’m very much looking forward to seeing him back on turf this evening.
Much of Zlatan’s best form over his 27 career starts has come on ground with a little cut in it and he was a winner here over course and distance at the back end of 2016 on soft ground in a class 5 contest very similar to today. That victory was Zlatan’s last race in a class 5 or lower and since then he went on to compete in some class 2&3 races last summer. The drop in grade today should be a real positive for this son of Dark Angel.
There are question marks over many of this field and if Zlatan is fit and well he looks more than likely to hit the frame at the very least. He’s currently priced at 13/2 which I think is fairly generous considering his credentials. I’m opting for an each way bet on this five-year-old gelding to get the week off to a flyer.
