Horse Racing Tips: Best Betting Tips for Friday

Today's Horse Racing Tips

• 14:05 Newbury – Bernardo O’Reilly – 1pt e/w @ 14/1 (5 places) with 888sport
• 15:50 Newbury – Secret Shadow – 1pt @ 9/1 with bet365
• 18:25 Bath – Princess Shabnam – 1pt @ 25/1 with BetVictor

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meetings at  Bath and Newbury, with three selections now online.

As always, you’ll find the most up-to-date odds at the best horse racing betting sites, but don’t sleep on our tipster’s predictions as those odds could soon be gobbled up by the betting public. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

14:05 Newbury – Bernardo O’Reilly – 1pt e/w @ 14/1

Bernardo O’Reilly ruined his season last year by bolting clear on reappearance and ended up being too high in the weights to do anything more than run solid races. The handicapper has relented since, however, and he’s a pound below that easy win. He was fancied to repeat the trick at Doncaster last time but the front-runners weren’t stopping and he had to settle for being the best of those who were held up.

It's possible he’ll take a step forward from his first run to his second and he’s lining up at a track where his C&D form on ground softer than good reads 1-2-5. The fifth came in horrible conditions at the backend of last season off 4lbs higher and it wouldn’t take much more than a minor improvement to see him as a major contender today. With 5 places up for grabs, he’s a solid each-way play.

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15:50 Newbury – Secret Shadow – 1pt @ 9/1

Secret Shadow progressed well in handicaps when trained by Andrew Balding, going from an opening mark of 68 to 89 as a result of four wins in 2021 & 2022. She was then sold for 45,000gns in November, moving to Paul Nicholls and presumably that was with a hurdling career in mind. It hasn’t materialised yet for whatever reason but she’s interesting back on the flat, and over two-miles for the first time.

Her last three wins have come at 1m 6f and she travelled really well for each of them, but wasn’t stopping and training in a National Hunt yard could help her to stretch out further. One of those wins came here on heavy and if the ground is as described it’ll be the first time she has been on a properly testing surface since. Improvement is required off her mark but 9/1 is a fair price in my book.

18:25 Bath – Princess Shabnam – 1pt @ 25/1

I usually prefer a higher drawn runner in the sprints at Bath, as those coming down the outside always seem to be at an advantage. At the meeting here a couple of weeks ago, however, the two sprints – both with max fields of 17 runners – were dominated by those down low. Stalls 4-3-1 finished in the top three in the opener and in the second one, it was 2-5-3 who came home in the main placings.

If history repeats itself this time around, Princess Shabnam mightn’t be as inconvenienced as I’d usually assume by having the lowest stall. She’s a simplistic enough ride as well, capable of making the running or sitting back in the field, and is among the highest rated of these. She also avoids a penalty for August’s Listed success at Pontefract and she defeated a couple of talented rivals to land that.

Her best recent form coming over 6f would make you wonder whether the minimum trip suits these days but I don’t think it’ll be a problem, especially with some cut underfoot on a track that takes a bit of grinding. The bigger worry is where her fitness will be at but the price takes that into account and I’ll take a punt. She’s likely to be all or nothing, so will go win-only at the current 25/1 that’s on offer.

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