Today's Horse Racing Tips: Pete can strike at Newbury

Yesterday’s results were bitterly disappointing as three well-fancied selections were all beaten. Fury Road travelled well for two thirds of the race before coming under pressure at a crucial stage. He could never land a blow thereafter and there is now a suspicion that he needs a stiffer track. Miss Heritage was very well backed (into 6/4 favouritism) at Catterick and plugged on for second behind an impressive winner who was bouncing back to form.

Arguably the biggest disappointment of the afternoon came in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown, where the multiple Grade 1 winner Delta Work unseated his replacement jockey relatively early in the race. With the favourite falling and the first three home priced at 15/2, 9/1 and 25/1, there had to be a strong chance that Delta Work would have been involved in the finish.

There is just one bet for today’s racing at Newbury.

Newbury Tip

14:40 – 3m2f MansionBet’s Best Odds Guaranteed Mandarin Handicap Chase (Class 3)

On his last start, Manofthemountain was sent off as favourite to beat the subsequent Ladbrokes Trophy winner (Cloth Cap) and the King George hero (Frodon) at Cheltenham. He was comprehensively beaten that day and given that finished tired and has been a non-runner on three occasions since, there is a suspicion that the race took plenty out of him. I fancied him at Kempton on Sunday before he was pulled out due to the ground (officially soft), and with similar conditions expected at Newbury today, there are reasons to take him on.

One horse that will relish these race conditions is the in-form CUBAN PETE (NAP – 1 point win bet at 9/2), who will receive weight from all but two of the declared horses. He failed to build on his winning chase debut last season but has returned in excellent shape this campaign and comes here on a hat-trick following wins at Stratford and Hereford.

His most recent success came by an eased down 5.5-lengths on soft ground and proved his stamina for this sort of trip. He remains open to more improvement on what will be just his eighth start over fences and Charlie Deutsch should be able to make a bold bid from the front.

This will be his first visit to Newbury, but trainer Venetia Williams has a 30% strike rate with her chasers at the course. This is also a race that tends to go to one of the fancied runners with just one winner in the past ten years sent off at bigger than 6/1.