Matt Brocklebank picks out the best bets from Sedgefield and Southwell on Tuesday.
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HARPER VALLEY rates the best bet on Tuesday as Rebecca Menzies' gelding looks to follow-up last year's win in the Chris Blanckley Birthday Handicap Hurdle. He's fully 10lb higher in the weights now after a 3lb bump up for the recent neck second at Kelso, but it was a very encouraging effort with a return to this venue in mind and the first-time visor applied in Scotland is understandably retained. The son of Leading Light would probably have preferred some more rain but he's won on good going in the past too and he's backed to come with a typical late run to land the spoils.
Solar System will be popular here, unpenalised for last week's win under the same rider in a conditional jockeys' event at Warwick, and there's no doubt more to come but it could pay to seek out a spot more value and THE BLUEBERRY ONE looks a real dark horse. Three outings across three months earlier this year - all at Newbury - didn't yield a huge amount but they were strong races in the context of this sort of event and he didn't shape too badly at all in the middle start, finishing sixth to Making Headway (now rated 127), with East India Express (123) the runner-up. Harry Derham's charge is bred to be better than he's shown and now goes handicapping off a mark of 101 which looks more than realistic.
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