Betfair Hurdle Betting Tips and Offers – Saturday 13th February 2016

Betfair Hurdle Tips and Betting Offers, Newbury, Saturday 13th February 2016

As the racing year moves relentlessly towards the March extravaganza that is the Cheltenham Festival, this weekend sees Graded action on both sides of the Irish Sea, as the top yards begin to finalise their plans. The big one on an excellent day at Newbury is this 2m69y, Grade 3 handicap contest. A race which has thrown up multiple top class performers over the years, can provide its own festival clues and looks as tough as ever to unravel.

With the season Philip Hobbs is having we couldn’t rule out the tough and tenacious Sternrubin or the highly promising War Sound. Both are towards the head of the market and should go well. At bigger prices Dicosimo (20/1 with Coral) a horse long viewed as potentially top class, and the front-running Chieftans Choice (50/1 with Ladbrokes) both have the potential to threaten. A case can be made for many others besides.

The market has spoken for Modus and Blazer in recent weeks and it may pay to follow the money on this occasion. Both horses hail from powerful yards, with Modus coming from the stables of British champion Paul Nicholls and Blazer travelling over from the Closutton base of Willie Mullins. Both are two from three over hurdles and open to masses of improvement. Judging on their performances to date we feel Modus possibly has a touch more class but Blazer is more likely to be seen to best effect in the likely soft ground. It was tough to choose between the J P McManus owned pair, with the decision of Barry Geraghty being the final deciding factor in favour of Blazer. From his choice a total of four McManus runners, Geraghty has decided that the son of Network is the one to be on and that’s good enough for us. Take the 7/2 with Ladbrokes.

For an each way punt we like the look of Nick Williams Agrapart. The five-year-old looks just the type of unexposed animal that could go well here. A mark of 137 looks perfectly fair given his recent efforts at the track. Scoring for the first time over timber two outings ago when romping home by 20 lengths in soft ground at Aintree, he was deemed worthy of a tilt at the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle next time out. Leading from the off he certainly wasn’t disgraced in giving best to the smart Yorkhill and O O Seven in the closing stages. Making his handicap debut here and with Lizzie Kelly taking off a valuable 5lb’s don’t be surprised to see him involved at the finish. Betvictor are one of the firms going 1/4 odds for the first four, the 20/1 with them is well worth snapping up each way.