Naas – Saturday 6th November

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning to the knowledge of a brilliant day of racing with National Hunt action coming from every shape and size in Ireland and the United Kingdom. My colleague Will Smith has brilliantly dissected the big handicaps over in England this weekend and has some live ante-post shouts to go to war with. With that in mind, I’ll be keeping my priorities firmly on this side of the sea, and looking at an excellent card at Naas and trying to make some sense from it. 

Starting off with the 12.15 opener, which is a 2m maiden hurdle. The obvious winner of this race will be Uhtred – who ran some solid races in good standard events last year and drops markedly in class back to a maiden hurdle. However, he is a horrendous price at odds on and I’m looking to take him on in each way markets. A horse I have a lot of time for is Gordon Dai Dai, who let his followers, including myself down with a tame effort on hurdles debut. He looked in need of the experience that day and his bumper form reads extremely well in the context of this race, posting some excellent RPRs. If reproducing that form, and if coming on for that first run of the season – he might well be able to get into the shake-up in this open contest. At a standout price of 15/2 with 888Sport, he is an each way bet. 

After a couple of intriguing Graded races on the card, we get to the 1.55 – which is the Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle over 2m4f. Without over-complicating things, I think the favourite – Damalisque has a brilliant chance of going one better than last year in this contest. He does have a much bigger burden this time around, but he is best fresh and his form last year makes for very positive reading amongst some of his challengers here. I would be sure that the Harty team will have this horse ready to go for this first start of the season and will be eyeing up bagging another decent pot with him. At a price of 6/1 with Bet365 – he is a confident each way selection, with four places being afforded to punters. 

The 3.05 race is the Novices Handicap Chase on the card and has my strongest selection of the day running in this race. Long term followers of this page would have been delighted to have been paid out nicely by Wa Wa last time out, when hacking up at Killarney last time out. He returns to a shorter trip today and has been raised five pounds, but I can’t help but feel he is still being underestimated by the assessor. He won the race last time out in the style of a mid 120s horse, and I think that is where his ability ultimately is, despite running in this contest off a mark of 116. He does have to carry top weight, but he is the class act of the field and Bryan Cooper seemed to get the best out of him last time out. At a price of 5/1 with BoyleSports, who pay out four places, he is my NAP of the day. 

The final selection from myself today comes in the 3.40 race at Naas – which is a fascinating Beginners Chase over 2m3f. Mr Incredible is a short priced favourite and looks an exciting recruit to fences for the De Bromhead yard. However, plenty from that yard have been needing the run so I wouldn’t be overly keen on getting stuck in at skimpy prices. Instead my angle into this race is not dissimilar to the first race on the card, and trying to find a solid each way alternative to a short priced favourite. Mercury Lane is the horse for me, as he was a rapid improver over hurdles last year and looks a really nice type to tackle a fence this year. 2m3f on sharp enough ground might be as quick as he wants it, but his aptitude for jumping is immense and I know first hand how eager connections have been to send this horse over a fence. With that in mind, and with it firmly in my head that he will improve a lot for fences – I think he is worth a bet. At a price of 9/1 with Bet365, I’ll be backing each way.