Quality staying handicaps are my favourite flat races for betting purposes. Unlike with sprints, the wager is not almost certainly lost if the horse you backed is slowly away or gets hampered in running. In staying races there is plenty of time to make up for some bad luck so the best horse on the day usually wins.
Tomorrow’s Betfair Exchange Old Borough Cup Handicap is just the sort of race that I like to tackle as a gambler
Tomorrow’s Betfair Exchange Old Borough Cup Handicap (Haydock, 3.05 p.m.) over one mile and six furlongs is therefore just the sort of race that I like to tackle as a gambler. Aegean Prince and Finalise are both lightly raced four-year-old horses from fashionable yards so it is not surprising to see them at the head of the market for tomorrow’s contest but best prices of 11-4 and 4-1 respectively look skinny given the strength of this 14-runner field.
I would much rather be on a hardened handicapper in the shape of STRESSFREE especially as he is a lot better on properly soft ground, a surface he will encounter tomorrow for the first time this season.
In fact, his last run was a good one when sixth to Daiquiri Bay in the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap at York a fortnight ago. Stressfree can run off an official rating of 97 tomorrow, 2lbs less than at York. Last season he was fourth in the Ebor off a mark of 101 before going on to be third in this Haydock race off a mark of 102. In short, the handicapper has given him a good chance of winning tomorrow.
