Nick Luck’s William Hill blog: Beauport can be Champ at Newbury

William Hill ambassador Nick Luck has run his eye over Friday’s card at Newbury and gives his best bets below.

RUSSIAN RULER can win the TV curtain raiser at Newbury on Friday (1.20pm) at 5/2. As it stands, reputation exceeds performance, but there’s a fair case that his runs in defeat at Doncaster and Kempton make him the one to beat here, yet he’s not favourite at the time of writing. To add another layer, he travelled all over the Dovecote field until the gauge went empty alarmingly quickly. You’d hope an interim breathing op would be effective in that respect.

BEAUPORT looks the right call at 5/2 in a warm looking novices’ chase (1.55pm). A scopey horse with a big future, he passed a tough test with aplomb at Carlisle, and his defeat of Millers Bank is of greater merit than Stage Star’s smart chasing debut. The weight concession to his rival makes things far from easy, but he is priced accordingly and I feel confident he can win again.

BEAKSTOWN looks a solid head of the market at 3/1 in a really good handicap (2.30pm). There’s bundles of pace on here, with Paint The Dream, Numitor and The Widdow Maker all forward going types. A stern test at this trip is right up Beakstown’s street, he has conditions to suit and he comes here off a superb run in that golden-formline Old Roan Chase. He’ll find this a little easier and remains really well handicapped.

CHAMP is a very boring selection in the Long Distance hurdle (3.05pm) at 15/8, but there’s so much in his favour, you could argue he’s a pretty fair price. He’s four out of five at the track (the one defeat was a remarkable effort in the circumstances), he’ll be fine on the ground, and his record after a break speaks for itself. On his going day, he’s just better than these (with the exception of an at-peak Paisley Park, who’ll run well), and there are multiple reasons to think he can bring his game.

PILEON is very chancy, but might be worth a small bet at 16/1 in the finale (3.40pm). His new trainer had a crack at fences again last time but, as twice before, he hated them. In addition, that was a qualifier and a seasonal debut, so the run is best forgotten whichever way you look at it. The handicapper has been generous to him: he’s three pounds lower than his penultimate hurdles run, when beaten a nose at Cheltenham and off the mark that saw him bolt up last December at Sandown. He’s an unpredictable cove, but too classy to write off just yet.