Punchestown Day 4: Friday Betting Tips and Top Picks
Ed Quigley aka ‘Longshot Ted’ has been amongst the winners at Punchestown this week, and selects his best bets from Friday’s action.
Ted’s Bets – Punchestown Friday
- (4.15) Kilcruitbet – with Tote
- (4.50) Riviere D’etel e/w – bet with BetUK
- (7.10) Arctic Bresil – bet with bet365
4.15 – Kilcruit
After bolting up on Chase debut, it is fair to say he hasn’t quite kicked on, but he could be one of those horses that bounces back to form despite an underwhelming season, now dropping into Handicap company. He has disappointed over fences when upped to Grade 1 level, but it is interesting to see how he gets on down in class. He is versatile in regards to underfoot requirements, and has form figures at Punchestown of 1141.
Off a mark of 148 it would be far from the biggest shock if he were to recapture some of his old magic. With the benefit of hindsight, he has perhaps performed better over Jumps on his last two starts than he was given credit for at he time. The form at Leopardstown last time out has worked out extremely well, and his penultimate run when beaten just over 6-lengths by Gerri Colombe at Limerick is very good, considering the Gordon Elliot representative bolted up in Grade 1 company at Aintree recently. Paul Townend takes the ride on this classy sort and I like his chances.
4.50 – Rivière D’etel
She is a mare who was a high-class chaser as a novice, but has struggled with back problems since, and subsequently her form has suffered as a consequence. However, she was in the process of running a much better race in the Mares’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, before crashing out, just before the race had got going in earnest.
Make no mistake about it, this is a hot race, with Impervious and Allegorie De Vassy locking horns once again, but Riviere D’Etel in the form of a year or so ago, would be a major player and is far from a forlorn hope. Jordan Gainford takes the ride and with a clear round hopefully she can offer up some resistance to the protagonists in this assignment.
7.10 – Arctic Bresil
This race is a little bit of a head scratcher, but Arctic Bresil looked a horse of immense potential when bolting up on debut at Cork back in December. The expensive purchase was then thrown in the deep end when heading to Sandown for the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle, but never went a yard and was pulled-up. He was very weak in the market beforehand, and there were suggestions that the horse didn’t travel over too well and Rachael Blackmore expressed how she was never happy with her mount at any point throughout the race.
Given some time off to mature and recover from that outing, it is fascinating to see how the Henry De Bromhaed trained representative gets on eased in class. Whatever he does here it will be a bonus as he should make up into a smashing chaser next season. Trip and ground should be fine and he can get back in the winners enclosure here.
Don’t forget Ed will be previewing all five days of the Punchestown Festival and providing his best bets here for talkSPORT.
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