Horse Racing Tips on Sunday, February 20
Irish racing from Navan and meetings at Musselburgh and Newbury take place on Sunday. Our editor has picked out four from across the cards for a 14,448/1 Lucky 15.
Dreal Deal (2.20 Navan)
The Grade 2 Boyne Hurdle has drawn a delightfully deep field of 14 on Sunday and one of the talking horses of last season is taken to come out on top.
DREAL DEAL made headlines with three extraordinarily easy successes in handicaps under Maxine O’Sullivan and supplemented those victories with a big-priced win in the Grade 2 Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.
Those wins were all achieved on soft or heavy going, which he clearly revels in and his two runs since have been on unsuitably quick ground. The form of his relatively cosy Grade 2 success is half decent though and this field is a mish mash of horses just below the top level. He can make his presence felt.
Son Of Camas (3.05 Newbury)
Although Nicky Henderson once stated that SON OF CAMAS was suited by a sounder surface, his runs in the last two seasons have been very disappointing on such ground.
As such, there may be a chance that his form is actually revitalised on soft, on which he has won before. He ran his best race for a while last time with the first time application of blinkers which are retained.
He was also eased 3lb for that run and the swing in the weights with the winner Goa Lil, who also runs well and genuinely prefers good ground, suggests he will at least reverse that form and any Henderson handicapper who has slid down the weights is worth a second look.
Storm Arising (4.15 Newbury)
The fog has not quite cleared from Paul Nicholls’ yard, but STORM ARISING has slid to an incredibly tempting mark.
His last win over hurdles came off a mark of 136. He was not at the same level over fences on his chase debut, but that win was only four starts ago and yet he is already 4lb lower than that rating.
The aforementioned chase debut was in a very strong race however and a mark of 132 probably does not get close to the bottom of this horse’s ability. Similarly, it was not his jumping that cost him, so if he comes on for that run, with his stable maybe beginning to come back to better form, he should go close.
Lookaway (4.50 Newbury)
This is a slightly more speculative suggestion, but none of those who have a run under their belts in bumpers look particularly inspiring.
Nollyador would probably give a good account, but Neil King has sent out 3 winners in bumpers for a 20% strike rate and 45.5-point level stakes profit. His representative here is LOOKAWAY who catches the eye.
He won his only point-to-point back in November and he did so in good style. That came on yielding to soft ground so any emphasis on stamina should help his cause and he could well make the cross over to the National Hunt game in style.