Dave Nevison's Thursday tips: It's got to be so Macho
Our betting expert has three selections for Thursday's racing action and fancies Mark Walford to strike at Market Rasen.
Edward Bethell endured plenty of annoying second places last season but what goes around comes around and the frustration of that is bearing fruit in handicaps this term - it is difficult to think of a trainer in better form at present.
This is a classically-bred filly who has the scope to improve beyond her mark of 80. She won her maiden over course and distance and has gone up just 1lb for coming second at Hamilton last time out. It will be disappointing if she can’t land this.
Macho Pride is a very consistent sprinter for one that runs at 0-55 level and he deserves a win after two good placed efforts recently. He hasn’t won for a huge number of runs and was off a mark of 75 when he last hit the winner's enclosure, so now competing off 56 you might imagine it had been a very dry spell but he has actually been in pretty good form, picking up plenty of places along the way.
He seems to have settled in well at Ruth Carr’s and she too is having a cracking season. In this grade his losing run looks set to end very soon.
A decent quality and competitive handicap hurdle that could provide a useful stepping stone to the big Summer festival back here for the likes of Ashington, who virtually never runs a bad race. This trainer/jockey combination did me a massive favour a couple of Saturdays ago and I am taking this six-year-old to do the same. Market Rasen suits his positive running style and Mark Walford deserves to get a win out of him soon.
