Horse racing tips: three handicappers to note at Huntingdon

Our pundit and resident website tipster Dave Nevison thinks three runners can go close at Huntingdon on Thursday and  makes his case below. Enjoy more action from Wetherby and every moment from Goffs Thyestes day at Gowran Park live on Racing TV.

Non-runner

He has the look of one more exposed than some of this lightly-raced opposition, but he has been placed off a higher mark than this previously and may still have improvement in him. 

Sister Michael ran second last time and definitely weakened noticeably between the final two hurdles, very likely because that was his first run for 13 months. He has been given a month to recover from that effort and is back on good groud here, which he won on as a novice. 

The yard of David Killahena and Graeme McPherson is in excellent form with three winners already in January, so Sister Michael looks set to run well again over a trip that suits well.

This looks a really interesting Pertemps Qualifier, with several of this field presumably looking to rise in the ratings in order to get into the Final of this series at the Cheltenham Festival. 

I would be very surprised if Robbie Llewellyn has not had this race in mind for Loup De Maude for some time, given he improved rapidly last season and won four handicaps with the first two of those at this track. He kept on improving throughout the campaign and ran very well on his final start at the Cheltenham April meeting. 

Loup De Maulde reappears here with a tongue strap for the first time, and I believe that change of headgear is a positive and suggests the seven-year-old is fit. Certainly, the rest of the Llewellyn yard is in the best of form.