Nina eyeing up favourite fillies
TOP jockey Nina Carberry has given us four horses to follow this week and a quick guide on what to watch out for.
She said: “Follow jockeys if they are in form and winning. Our own Paul Townend is going to be riding for Willie Mullins and he had two winners last Sunday and he is flying into the week.
“Rachael Blackmore rides brilliantly around Cheltenham so she is going to want to get her name on the winner board for Henry debromhead.”
Remember there is quite a lot of thought put into the betting market, often by people who are very clever at maths and crunching numbers, so there is a reason a horse would be a
“favourite”.
Nina, 39, said: “The favourites in the betting for any given race are there for a reason so it is all about them producing on the day in the race that has been chosen for them. I would look for horses that have won at Cheltenham before, last year or the year before – that’s a massive thing.
“So I see one of Rachael’s horses, called Envoi Allen, he has won a bumper
(without fences) he has won over hurdles (small fences) he won a big race over fences there before and he is going for a fourth win.”
There are other factors that are more important than the blizzard of statistics available. She said: “If I was picking a horse I would go for this order, the horse that won before.
“Then there is a thing called a ‘course specialist’, that means the horse in question has won a race at the racetrack he is running on before. “This week I would be looking for someone who has won at Cheltenham before.
“Look for a horse that has won before, if he has won lots of times all the better.”