Horse Racing Betting – Harry to Give Moore Another Trophy Success

What is patently obvious, looking at the stats of this week’s Totesport Trophy at Newbury, is that anything trained by either Nicky Henderson or Gary Moore deserves the utmost respect. Henderson saddles four in this year’s renewal of the UK’s most valuable handicap hurdle with stable jockey Barry Geraghty partnering Spirit River, an impressive winner on his latest outing at Cheltenham in December. Spirit River (a general 7-1) has only had five career starts to date so is probably open to more improvement than most and it’s easy to see why he currently heads the market. Stablemate Fairyland (22-1 with sportingbet) is also an interesting runner, however, in that she’s a recent C&D winner (beat Frontier Dancer here last time) and stays further than this 2m, a valuable asset to possess in a race which is always run at a tremendous pace. But I think the Moore yard has tremendous prospects of landing a third consecutive Totesport Trophy via Harry Tricker. The six-year-old displayed a tremendous turn of foot to beat an in-form Zabeel Palace at Sandown in November before splitting Champion Hurdle prospect Khyber Kim and subsequent Grade 2 winner Medermit in the prestigious Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham shortly after. The handicapper saw fit to raise Harry Tricker (8-1 with Ladbrokes, Betfred and on betfair) 12lbs for that but regular jockey Andrew Glassonbury reduces that burden by 3lb and this appears to have been his target for a while. Given luck in running, Harry Tricker‘s speed could be the deciding factor in this. Other contenders to watch out for include the novice Manyriverstocross (11-1 with Stan James and Coral) whom Alan King rates highly. He was a decent stayer on the flat and has carried that form into his hurdling career though he weakened quickly over a longer distance here last time, and Mamlook (a general 9-1 chance). The latter won a shade cosily at Ascot last month after travelling strongly throughout but he isn’t that big and there’s a chance he may get bullied in this big field over a trip that is probably on the sharp side for him nowadays and punters have been preferring stablemate Ronaldo Des Mottes (10-1 on Coral and sportingbet) so far. Takeroc (11-1 with Coral) has proved popular with punters since it was announced he was to be partnered by Ruby Walsh but he hasn’t shown enough over hurdles for me to warrant his price and neither has Tony McCoy‘s mount Get Me Out Of Here, 8-1 with bet365 and Stan James, who may be unbeaten but has never met opposition of this calibre before. Songe (a general 40-1) has reportedly been rejuvenated by a soft palate operation and is well treated on his best form. If the ground turned really heavy he would be of real interest and certainly makes more appeal as an each-way investment than some at much shorter odds.