Horse racing tips: James Boyle's best bets for Thursday

16:30 Beverley – Zumurud – 1pt @ 25/1

It took a drop back into the 0-65 band to get Zumurud home in-front last season and I’m wondering could history repeat itself today. He’s a high-risk play on account of the form he has shown this term but he wasn’t disgraced on his penultimate start in a slowly-run 7f contest on a speedy track.

He got a decent gallop at Ripon last time when returning from a couple of months off but I’m not sure that track plays to his strengths and he never got out of his sit in the rear. Losing a shoe didn’t help but it’s possible he wasn’t operating at his best regardless, so I’m not reading into it too much.

He’s now 5lbs lower than his effort at Wetherby and 2lbs lower than last season’s win, so there are no excuses from a handicapping perspective. This track will suit better and I just hope there’s enough of a pace on for him. It’s hard to be certain how it’ll be run but he’s a huge price if things pan out.

17:30 Windsor – Rathbone – 1pt e/w @ 28/1

I would have been happy to leave Rathbone alone after siding with him last week and watching what he put into the race. Flat would be the best way to describe it and it could be that he has lost his way, but he has shown himself to be a lazy racer in times gone by and could fancy it more this time around.

His previous run at Yarmouth is easily forgiven on account of the ground and, before that, he was running well more often than not and went within a length of scoring in a Sunday Series handicap at Pontefract. A similar performance to that would put him bang in the mix against any of these.

Being drawn out widest of all may not be as big an issue with him compared to some of the others and Clifford Lee takes over from an apprentice. If he can coax the horse into putting it all in, he’ll go better than the odds suggest and hopefully can hit one of the four places currently on offer, at least.

18:00 Windsor – Lulworth Cove – 1pt @ 18/1

Lulworth Cove was another to flop last time out but clearly didn’t enjoy the heavy ground at Chester and could be worth chancing. Previous to that, she was well-beaten at Newmarket but the winner of that race was a 77-rated Star Guest (winner off 87 since) and the form makes plenty of sense.

Her two handicap runs before that yielded a second to Radio Goo Goo (won twice since and placed at Royal Ascot) and an easy Lingfield win ahead of Kessaar Power. On both occasions, she showed a fine cruising speed and that offers hope of a step back in trip to 5f bringing out some improvement.

It will be needed if she’s going to mix it with some of these but the faster ground will transform what she’s capable of doing. There’ll be no shortage of pace to sit behind either if the speed map turns out to be correct and Sean Levey rides the track as well as most of the top riders. 18/1 is a play for me.

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