Hellenista – 7.25 Ripon – 1m 4F Handicap – 10/1 Bet365 – 2 Point Win.
I put up Hellenista last time out on her handicap debut when she was stepped up in trip and was unlucky not to place or win.
Hellenista travelled sweetly into the race sitting behind on the rail but then had no where to go two out and the jockey, David Allen, seemed to panic a little and went for a gap that wasn’t there and was badly hampered.
She showed plenty of willingness to stay on but had lost momentum at a crucial time and couldn’t pick up the leaders.
Hellenista goes for quick compensation today in a race that won’t take as much winning as it looks, and connections won with the dam of Hellenista on her 5th start which bodes well for today’s 5th effort.
At 10/1 she looks a rock solid bet and I’m recommending a 2 point win at 10/1 with Bet365.
She still looks value at 6/1.
Please see my previous write up below for reference:
Hellenista – 4.00 Hamilton – 1m 4F Handicap – 7/1 Bet365 – 2 Point Win.
This all aged handicap is full of exposed older sorts who all take a turn in winning races.
At the head of the market is the 3 year old Desert Quest who is unexposed and won last time out, however that was in a 5 runner event over 1m 6F and he might find it harder to dominate from the front in this larger field and cope with a drop in trip of 2F.
The other unexposed 3 year old is Hellenista and I like her chances. She makes her handicap debut after running just three times over shorter trips where she was staying on without troubling the judge.
She has postmarked 47, 42 & 47 and has been allocated an initial mark off 55 which looks a fair starting point to me.
The trainer, Tim Easterby, knows the horse well having raced it’s mother, Maven, who herself ended up being rated in the 80’s. He also raced her in maidens over shorter trips and won when she made her handicap debut stepping up over further, that was also with todays jockey David Allan in the saddle.
I like this profile and we can get a very fair 7/1 on Hellenista so I recommend we back her 2 point win with Bet365.
She is still value at 5/1.
Fenaan – 6.55 Ripon – 1 Mile Handicap – 66/1 Skybet – 4 places – 1 point each way.
The 6 year old Fenaan is a winner of 4 races, including two handicaps off marks of 83 & 90.
He has been a consistent horse and invariably runs well at Ripon, with his best postmark in 2020 and 2019 both being at the track over a mile.
He normally takes a run to get going, but this season his three runs have been a shade disappointing.
I’m hoping a return to Ripon will spark a revival in his form, this combined with him now being fully fit and the handicapper relenting his mark down to 72 will give him every chance of victory. He has run at Ripon 4 times and postmarked 84, 87, 90 & 91, so a run to anything near these efforts will see him win convincingly.
At odds of 66/1 we have to get involved, especially with Skybet offering 4 places in this 11 runner event.
He still looks value at 25/1.