Key Points
- My betting tip today is a good ground horse and he finally gets his conditions
- Plenty has gone against him but he’s very well handicapped as a result
- He won this race back in 2022 and I’d say it’s no coincidence he returns to try again
Whilst there are loads of horses to choose from during Saturday’s action, one stood out to me and he will be my betting tip for today’s article. He is a risky proposition but if they have him right now, he is incredibly well handicapped and he has his ideal conditions.
Is this your first time reading my articles for betting.co.uk? If so, welcome aboard! That would also mean that you haven’t seen my antepost selections for both the 2026 Cheltenham Festival and 2026 Grand National, so be sure to check those out after you have read this one. The three selections across those two articles are all huge prices and contain a lot of value. I’m expecting their prices to shorten considerably as we get closer to the races, so I’d recommend you get on early.
Betting advice
- 14:40 Haydock -
An Tailliur
@ 6/1 -
0.5pt Win
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With his ideal conditions, An Tailliur can get back on track!
An Tailliur won this race back in 2022 and whilst a lot of water has gone under the bridge since, I think he can win this again with conditions falling in his favour today. He ticks many boxes today and if he is ever going to bounce back, I think it’ll be now!
In this article, I’ll be explaining why I think that it will be An Tailliur’s day in the sun - With the sun a big part of it!
This horse thrives on Good ground and he gets it today at Haydock!
If you look back through quotes about An Tailliur, there is a common theme.
With trainer, Jonjo O'Neill commenting: “He's a good ground horse
so I'd imagine
we'll put him away and go out again in the spring”
And Joe Hickey, racing manager to Pat Hickey, owner of An Tailliur saying: “An
Tailliur is a great little horse who keeps on improving and
likes good ground, which is key to him.”
From this we can see An Tailliur is a horse for the Spring, and is at his best on the Good ground that it brings. If you look through the form book, it tells you pretty much the same story. He has seven career wins to his name and every single one of them has come on
Good
ground. In fact, if you look only at his form on Good or Good to Firm ground, he has raced 12 times and remarkably finished in the first three 11 times. What is even more incredible is that the only time he didn’t finish in the first three, he unseated. Therefore on every completed start on Good or Good to Firm ground, he has never finished out of the first three. The exact form figures are 211111U11232.
In stark contrast he has had the same amount of runs (12) on Good to Soft, Soft and Heavy ground combined and has only hit the first three once! He has only tackled Good ground once since October 2022 and that came over fences, which he never seemed to take to. However, today, he returns to Good ground and I think that could result in us seeing a very different horse to what we have seen in recent times.
Nothing has gone his way in recent years but he’s very well handicapped as a result!
Sometimes life just doesn’t go your way and it feels very much like that has been the case for An Tailliur. The irony is that from May 2021 to April 2022, it couldn’t have gone much better for him. In that time period, he raced nine times with seven wins and one second. However, after a couple of places at Cartmel and Cheltenham, he went to the big spring Festivals - Cheltenham and Aintree. Sadly the ground went against him at both and he could only finish sixth and eighth respectively.
He was then off the track for 500 days from that Aintree run on 15th April 2023 through until 27th August 2024. When he came back, he went chasing but it never worked out for him. He ran a respectable race on his return, finishing second but there were only three runners and he was beaten 26 lengths. The performance was around 10lb off his peak form and it was rather disappointing, albeit it was off the back of a mammoth absence. His next two starts over fences were even worse and they soon gave up on that idea.
After a 52-day break, he returned to hurdles but in his three starts back over the smaller obstacles, there has been juice in the ground for each run and as mentioned, good ground is key to him. He subsequently hasn’t run anywhere near his best and as a result, his handicap mark has tumbled. He ran at Cheltenham and Aintree in 2023 off a mark of 139 and just six runs later, he is now rated just 125. That is a whole stone lower and considering three were over fences and three were on unsuitable ground, this could be overly lenient on him.
He won this race in 2022 and I don’t think it is a coincidence that he’s back to repeat the feat!
I always find it interesting when trainers target the same races. Many are creatures of habit and once they crack the code with a horse and/or what it takes to win a particular race, you’ll often find them looking to repeat the success. Jonjo O’Neill is a prime example here winning this particular Series Final in 2017, 2019 and then again in 2022. That latest win was with An Tailliur himself and now three years later, Jonjo looks to repeat the feat with him.
Interestingly, that win was An Tailliur’s sole run at Haydock, so he has a 100% record here and I wouldn’t be surprised if he maintained that today. I also find it interesting that since Jonjo brought his son AJ onto the training licence, they have only had 10 runners up here at Haydock. From those 10 runners, they have had two winners (20%) and a further four in the first four (60%), which is quite an impressive strike rate.
If they felt An Tailliur was out of love with the game, wouldn’t they just retire him or maybe find him an easy target to boost his confidence? To me, the fact they are throwing him into this £40,000 Series Final with £20,576.00 to the winner, suggests to me that they retain plenty of faith in him and they believe that he can bounce back to form with this better ground - I hope they’re right!
Can An Tailliur win this race for the second time?
A mark of 125 could seriously underestimate An Tailliur now that he gets his favoured ground conditions for the first time in a long time. On his day, he was producing performances up towards a mark of 140 and that puts him in a different calibre to today’s opposition. There are no guarantees that he does bounce back today but if he does, he will take an awful lot of beating. The fact he is 1/1 at the track and that win came in a previous renewal of this race, only sweetens my view on him further.
There is risk attached to this one, as he could continue down his slippery slope and therefore, I’m playing half stakes only and on the nose. I feel he either bounces back and wins or he could be tailed off once again. At a price of 6/1, he’s worth taking the chance on!
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