Our all-weather expert Jamie Maynard fancies a couple of horses at Newcastle this evening including Jim Goldie's Tommy G.
Recommended bets
1pt win The British Lion in 5.45 Newcastle at 3/1
1pt win Tommy G in 7.15 Newcastle at 9/2
5.45 32Red Casino Handicap
The opening race on this evening’s card comes in the form of a six-furlong handicap with seven going to post. Tough Remedy returns to the track after a 172-day absence and a gelding operation and his last run was one of note having finished two-lengths behind Regulator who hasn’t been disgraced in listed events since. He’d have an obvious chance if ready to go after a break but it’s not certain that he’ll enjoy the synthetics on all-weather debut. Shades Of Mist, the only previous winner in the field, wasn’t beaten far off this mark in identical conditions over this track and trip last time but would need to improve a bit more to win this so the selection is Mark Johnston’s bay-colt THE BRITISH LION on his second start in handicap company. His debut was a four-and-a-half length defeat at Wolverhampton over seven-furlongs where he held every chance inside the final furlong but just didn’t get home. The drop back in trip looks sure to suit having previously gone close in a novice event over course and distance in November and he was badly hampered that day when mounting his challenge. The return to this track and distance should help this son of Power with his progression and I don’t think that it’ll take that much more improvement to play a serious hand in this.
7.15 sunbets.co.uk Handicap
The feature handicap on the card looks a wide-open event with plenty of possibilities in the field. Supporters of Waarif would have been disappointed he didn’t get the job done here last time over the mile trip as he looked the winner for the majority of the race. He’s had a busy schedule though over the last month or so and his opportunity to gain his first UK success may have come and gone for now. Mansfield has hit the crossbar the last twice at short odds over this distance but they were against much weaker opposition than he’ll be facing this evening and he’s gone up another 3lb without winning. The horse who I’m siding with here is the five-year old TOMMY G trained by Jim Goldie who is in red-hot form of late (3/9 in the past 14 days). Although he’s only recorded the one career win to date, that success was off this mark of 74 on the turf at Ayr over this trip and is in fact the lowest handicap mark he’s had to run off in what’s still the early stages of his racing career. He went mightily close in the hands of apprentice Phil Dennis over the minimum trip here just over a week ago when heavily supported and the step back up in trip should suit even more with his jockey claiming 3lb again.
Posted at 0830 GMT on 12/01/18.
