It’s ladies day at the Festival and as the sun is shinning down the excitement is quickly building.
Racing expert Derek Thompson spoke briefly to Newstalk Breakfast on Wednesday morning as he took a look ahead to an action packed day.
“I’m here at the racecourse and it is a beautiful sunny morning,” he said. “The ground is going to be a little bit quicker than yesterday, the conditions are ideal.”
The feature race on day two is the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the mighty Douvan tops the market at a price of 1/4. He is 13/13 for Willie Mullins and there is no reason to believe he cannot extend his winning record even further. At 1/4 it certainly isn’t a price that will make punters rich, but for fans of racing it’s certainly one to sit back and admire.
The opening race of the day is the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle. Thompson believes the favourite Neon Wolf at 15/8 has great chance. "Noel Fehily who won the Champion Hurdle yesterday with Buveur D'Air said that Neon Wolf is like riding an airplane. When someone like Noel Fehily says that, we listen.” The At The Races presenter also thinks the Gordon Elliott trained Shattered Love has a great chance at odds of 10/1. Elliott trained three winners yesterday so there is no doubt that his horses are in form.
Next up is the RSA Novices’ Chase. The market is tightly packed but Thompson believes the favourite Might Bite at 7/2 will take all the beating. Trained by Nicky Henderson who also had a very good day yesterday winning the Arkle and Champion Hurdle. "Might Bite worked with Altior last week at the Gallops and apparently finished alongside him,” said Thompson.
Back to the Champion Chase and speaking about Douvan he said, "Douvan is a machine, no horse has gotten within six lengths of him in his last nine races. He goes for 14 wins in a row today. He is 1/4 and yesterday some guy had £400,000 on Altior at the same odds. As we know that horse won and this lucky man picked up an extra £100,000.”
He certainly is people’s cert of the day so let’s hope he doesn’t disappoint.
Thompson spoke to Michael O’Leary yesterday and he said that Tombstone has a fantastic chance. He heads the betting at 4/1 for the Coral Cup
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