BEST of the BETS

I really don't like trying to second guess Julia Feilden horses, but I think she has a great chance with NEW EXPO in the 3:05 at Yarmouth today, at a nice e/w price of 12/1, hopefully 8 runners will remain in the race!

Initially caught my eye as Royston Ffrench is doing 8 stone 2 for the ride, with his lowest riding weight in the past month being just 1lb less.

This horse is running off a basement mark of 45, and I noticed was previously with Hugo Palmer, so I looked a little further.

On debut Palmer pitched him into a Class 3 Maiden at Newmarket, against the likes of TRAVEL ON & MIND THE CRACK, where he obviously wasnt seen as a no-hoper going off at 10/1 under Oisin Murphy. (Travel On is now rated in the 90s.)

RP states that the horse switched to Feilden in April of this year. However, I found the Harraton Herald (Julia Feilden newsletter) online, with the following excerpt from December 21st 2018......

"Formerly trained by Hugo Palmer, New Expo had his first three races in the space of just three weeks towards the end of the year and although he didn’t show much form in those races, neither did his three year old brother who went on to win three handicaps this summer and improved significantly for a step up in distance and a gelding operation.

This is exactly what we plan to do with New Expo and he has the shape and size of a horse who will improve dramatically from his two to three-year old season and surely looks a winner waiting to happen off his current rating.”

At the time the mark was 49 (4 lbs higher than today), and the horse was gelded on 23rd December (presumably as soon as she got her hands on him! )

The brother mentioned is QUANTAMENTAL who won 3 races over 1m4f off marks of 64, 70 & 71 for Tom Dascombe last summer.

New Expo had a good recent run at the course finishing 3rd at 100/1 under today's jockey.

On her blog today Julia states the following......................................"As mentioned, we'll have a strong raiding party heading to Yarmouth on Friday to try and continue our good season by the seaside and the best chance could be with our first runner New Expo who ran a blinder at the track last time to finish 3rd at 100/1. He has come out of the race really well and seems to be getting the hang of things now whilst the extra distance should suit him too.”

Now if this horse is going to live up to the hopes the trainer obviously has for him, then I would be expecting a very decent effort over the 1m6f today from this low mark and feather weight!

I'll be disappointed not to get a placed effort for the 12/1 currently available, assuming 3 places remain.

Main worry for me, in terms of winning, is that Charlie Fellowes has one in the race and his are flying at the moment, though Feilden herself has 2 winners from 6 runners in the past fortnight.

If he does perform nicely it may also be worth watching out for her other two runners on the card in the 3:40 & 5:20 races.

Sorry for the length of post....got carried away AGAIN!!