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Horse racing tips: Southwell and Chelmsford – Thursday January 18
Today’s horse racing tips are from meetings at Southwell and Chelmsford. See our expert’s nap of the day, next best and other selections
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Freezing weather across the UK and Ireland has accounted for the National Hunt cards at Fairyhouse, Ludlow and Wincanton, leaving just an all-weather double-bill for racing fans on Wednesday.
The first port of call is Chelmsford (1.20-4.15pm), for a six-race Flat card, before the reins are taken up by the meeting at Southwell (5.00-8.30pm), where there are eight races to warm the punters.
Our Thursday fancies include a Gay Kelleway-trained colt who made a very promising debut at Kempton last month and could build on that at Southwell.
Horse racing tips today – Southwell and Chelmsford
James Milton’s picks for Thursday are below. Scroll down to read the expert analysis behind them.
- Nap: Alrazeen (Southwell, 5.30) @ SP with BetMGM
- Next best: Queen Of Ipanema (Southwell, 6.30) @ SP with BetMGM
- Other: King Of Scotia (Chelmsford, 3.05) @ SP with BetMGM
Odds correct at time of publishing and may be subject to change.
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Horse racing tips: Southwell 5.30
All five runners have decent claims in this interesting-looking novice stakes over 1m 3f, particularly Siempre Arturo who won comfortably last time out at Chelmsford. Top weight may hinder his chance of winning here, so the vote goes to Gay Kelleway’s runner ALRAZEEN.
The three-year-old comes into this off the back of a promising debut at Chelmsford last month, when he was not fancied in the betting but ran well to finish a respectable fourth. He did look a bit green rounding the final bend but he kept on well and as debuts go over this distance it was eye catching.
A sizeable colt, it will help that he is at the bottom of the weights, as will being in the hands of Hayley Turner who takes this as her only ride on the card.
Selection: Alrazeen @ SP with BetMGM
Horse racing tips: Southwell 6.30
This wide-open Class 3 handicap includes a course-and-distance winner in Qaasid and a decent stayer in Barenboim, but the vote goes to the only mare in the field, QUEEN OF IPANEMA.
On the face of it her form does not look the best, but she has always performed well over longer trips and today’s 1m 3f should suit her better at this level. She has been outpaced in the closing stages of shorter races, as happened last time out over 1m 2f at Newcastle.
She has a very good record on the all-weather with seven wins from 15 runs, including an impressive success under top weight at Wolverhampton last month, and her stamina puts her in the mix here.
Selection: Queen Of Ipanema @ SP with BetMGM
Horse racing tips: Chelmsford 3.05
Jamie Osborne’s runner KING OF SCOTIA looks to be a bit of an enigma. He showed some promising form early in his career when based in Ireland and more recently he has looked as though he wanted further, consistently getting towards the front and then fading in the closing stages. However, when tried over 1m or 1m 2f he did similar, so today’s step back to 7f is interesting.
He ran no sort of race when last seen, although his jockey said the gelding lost his action and was eased up so he can be forgiven for that run.
His best work came early on in his career over this trip. He ran into second on his debut in August 2022, behind only the 2023 St Leger winner Continuous, before confirming his promise by winning at Dundalk in December 2022. Having lost his way since, he can bounce back here.
Selection: King Of Scotia @ SP with BetMGM
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