Paul Ferguson heads to the Newbury Festival today and has one pick; Colour Squadron in the 15.50 Compare odds.
Newbury stages day two of the Hennessy meeting and it promises to be a most informative card, with the juvenile hurdle and, in particular, the four-runner Grade 2 novices’ chase intriguing contests.
The concluding maiden hurdle also looks a cracker and is one that promises to throw up plenty of future winners so be sure to set your Sky+ as it will need some reviewing.
Nicky Henderson bids for a hat-trick in the race with the well regarded dual bumper winner Mono Man, Jonjo O’Neill’s It’s A Gimme made an encouraging debut over hurdles when runner-up to Wednesday’s impressive winner Hazy Tom, but Colour Squadron (3:50) could hardly have been more impressive at Chepstow recently and is given the nod at the likely prices.
Philip Hobbs took this contest with the smart Copper Bleu three years ago and his son of Old Vic ran out a 14-length bumper winner on his racecourse debut last month. It is hard to evaluate the form at this stage, but the sixth home (beaten 21 lengths) won at Folkestone a couple of weeks back.
The slight worry is that he appeared to relish the deteriorating ground at Chepstow, but the ground certainly seemed on the easy side yesterday and he is worth supporting in what looks a red-hot contest. The selection was trading around 4/1 on Betfair on Thursday evening.
Friday’s selection:
3:50 Newbury Colour Squadron
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- AL FEROF won Supreme Novices’ Hurdle 10-1
- BENSALEM won Stewart Family Handicap 5-1
- BOBS WORTH won A Bartlett 15-8, 4/4 for year
- CAPTAIN CHRIS won Arkle Trophy 6-1
- FIRST LIEUTENANT won Neptune Investment 7-1
- (plus Grade 1 in Ireland 16-1)
- JAMES DE VASSY won Lanzarote Hurdle 8-1
- LONG RUN won King George 9-2, Gold Cup 7-2
- OSCAR WHISKY won Aintree Hurdle 6-1
- Peddlers Cross (Fighting Fifth Hurdle)
- Medermit (Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase)
- FINIAN’S RAINBOW (Maghull Novices’ Chase)
- WISHFULL THINKING (Manifesto Novices’ Chase)