Nick Luck’s blog: Edwardstone to be Perfecto at Newbury

As if Saturday wasn’t enough, Newbury hosts its rescheduled card on Sunday and what a cracker it is! Here are Nick Luck’s fancies.

Newbury

ES PERFECTO is the token choice at 17/2 to win a ferociously competitive three miler at Newbury on Sunday (1.50pm). Quietly progressive, he clearly faced an impossible task behind Bravemansgame here earlier in the season, but got closer to him than might have been expected and the handicapper hasn’t gone crazy by any means. The jockey is riding out of his skin.

LOSTINTRANSLATION must surely be the play in the Denman Chase (2.25pm) with his stable in slightly better form and after a second wind op (which could easily curb his tendency to bleed). At their respective bests, he matches very closely with Clan Des Obeaux on ability and given that Clan has not been at his absolute best in two starts this season, the Tizzard runner must be the bet at 3/1.

FANION D’ESTRUVAL might raise an eyebrow or two in an absorbing running of the Game Spirit (3.00pm). I thought he upped his game quite nicely in Grade One company in the Clarence House, and won’t face the same shock and awe here at a track where he looked mighty slick in handicap company last season on nice ground. The Champ bandwagon is in full swing, but I’ll pass at that price, while Greaneteen is of comparable ability to the selection (and no price) and Sceau Royal comes here off a nasty fall. The Venetia Williams contender looks the one to be with at 6/1.

EDWARDSTONE is a really decent horse on his day and can win the Betfair Hurdle (3.35pm) at 11/1. Connections didn’t take long to go back hurdling after one early mishap over fences, suggesting they think he’s still got a big one in him off his mark. It wasn’t much of a race he won at Market Rasen, but he carried top weight on unsuitably desperate ground and still did the job in some style. His run in a golden edition of the Supreme last year showed him to be pretty smart for a horse rated in the mid-140s, the pace should curb his keenness and the ground will suit to a tee.

Check out all the latest horse racing betting odds at William Hill