Free betting tips: Matt Brocklebank's value bet selections for Saturday's racing at Chester and Sandown
Matt Brocklebank bids to unearth the best value bets on offer at Chester and Sandown on Saturday including Michael Bell's Graceland.
Whether it's the novelty silks, relatively unknown jockeys or just the general razzmatazz that surrounds the whole day, I'm a firm believer that Shergar Cup form is on the whole underestimated and GRACELAND (7/1, General) can help prove the point in the corbettsports.com Chester Stakes on Saturday.
She's held an excellent level of consistency since making a winning seasonal return over two miles at Ascot in May, placing three times from four subsequent outings, and looked better than ever when beaten a length into third by Euchen Glen in the Stayers event back at the Berkshire track in the middle of last month.
That effort has already been franked to some degree with the winner looking slightly unlucky in third behind Magic Circle at York's Ebor meeting and fourth home Fleeting Visit running well under a big weight at Kempton.
The strong-travelling Graceland, who gets another chance off the same mark this weekend, looks well up to competing at this Listed handicap level having been beaten just a neck in the consolation race for the Northumberland Plate in July, and her usual jockey Louis Steward taking over from Keita Tosaki can't be a bad thing, with all due respect to the 37-year-old Japanese rider who was having his first taste of British racing at the Shergar Cup.
Steward should be able to pick up a decent position from stall five and although without success from two previous visits to the track, Graceland is an improved performer this term and is her in-form stable's only runner on the card.
GRACIOUS JOHN (3.20 Chester) is another to get on side at Chester under the in-form John Egan. Egan gets on well with this horse, having ridden him for six of his seven career wins, and it's notable he's back in the plate for the first time since the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.
He didn't beat many home at the big meeting and hasn't played much of a part in three subsequent starts either, but as a consequence his handicap rating has dropped from 108 to 97 and it's worth highlighting he was as high as 110 at the start of the season having won a couple of nice handicaps last year.
One of those came on the all-weather and he enhanced his Lingfield record when going close behind Kimberella on All-Weather Finals day in the spring, but his record of 20-4-5 on turf highlights the fact he's not just a synthetics specialist.
Trainer David Evans likes to target Chester (has won runnings of the 2.45, 3.55 and 5.05 on this card in recent years) and at 18/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair) I'm willing to find out if this race has been on the agenda for Gracious John for a few months.
At Sandown the BetBright Recall Handicap has an appealing look to it, with Noble Gift, Silver Ghost and the hard-pulling Monarchs Glen likely to set things up for the closers, a scenario which doesn't always develop at this track.
It'll be fascinating to see if Silvestre De Sousa can persuade Mutarakez to go through with his effort fully, while things are bound to fall the way of Oasis Fantasy before the season is out.
However, it looks well worth sticking with the progressive four-year-old THUNDERING BLUE (8/1, General). His two recent wins have come in small fields but he's crying out for a true test in a big field and is clearly versatile in terms of ground conditions.
He scored easily despite wandering around in the closing stages on Newmarket's July Course, where he had subsequent York scorer Eddystone Rock back in fourth.
A 4lb rise in the weights doesn't look anything like enough to stop the grey gelding and it looks significant Jim Crowley is getting down close to his minimum weight for the ride.
Recommended bets: Saturday racing
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Posted at 1530 BST on 01/09/17.