Key Points
- Some say today’s betting tip should have won this race last year!
- His new trainer has worked wonders with a couple of horses!
- His tongue tie returns together with first time cheekpieces!
My best betting tip for Saturday lines up for the Great Yorkshire Chase. I tipped Docpickedme, the winner of this race last year, and hopefully I can repeat the feat this year. Some would say today's selection should have landed the spoils last year, but he does seem to be part of a long term plan this year. That works well for us, as his current 8/1 odds could easily underestimate him.
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Betting advice
- 14:05 Doncaster -
Walking On Air
@ 8/1 -
1pt Win
William Hill has the best odds for today’s tip!
At the time of writing, Walking On Air is a general 15/2 shot. However, two bookmakers have the
best horse racing odds
for Walking On Air at 8/1. Of the two, I have leaned towards William Hill as my recommendation for this article. That is partly due to their fantastic new customer sign up offer. If you bet £10, you’ll get £30 of free bets. One simple sign up and you can increase your weekend betting power.
Walking On Air deserves to win this and I think he can!
After what happened in last year’s renewal (which I’ll come onto), Walking On Air deserves to land this £100,000 handicap. I believe he can make amends by winning it this time around and in this article, I’ll be breaking down why I think that. Therefore, make sure you keep reading on in order to understand my thinking here.
Should Walking On Air have won this race last year?
Arguably, Walking On Air should have won this race last year. Under Richie McLernon's guidance, he sat in behind the leaders with just a few fences left to jump. He was hampered a couple of times, but as they came down the home straight, he found more and more for Richie, switching out wide. He jumped the second last in third place, but cruised into it and led narrowly at the last when he came down. We’ll never know for sure how that would have ended and it benefitted me last year as I backed the eventual winner - Docpickedme. However, it’s easy to argue that Walking On Air travelled best and may well have won going away up the run-in if he stayed on his feet.
Last year’s form worked out well as The Changing Man (second) and Young Buster (seventh) both won next time out and The Changing Man has repeatedly run well in top handicap chases and even in Grade 1 company. Whilst Docpickedme didn’t kick on from the win immediately, returned to the same mark of 129, he won over this C&D last month on his latest start, showing his run in this race last year to be no fluke. With Walking On Air and Docpickedme racing with the same 4lb between them as last year, I think Walking On Air could reverse the form and get this deserved victory off just a 2lb higher mark.
His new trainer has worked wonders with a couple of horses
After his fall in the race last year, Walking On Air went to Cheltenham and ran in the Kim Muir. He was making headway when he was hampered on the turn four out and that was his race over. He did continue to race on, but was trapped out wide and weakened from two out. He was sent off at 7/1 that day and ran better than his 11th place suggests. That was his final run for his trainer Gary Brown and his owners.
With the change of ownership came a change of trainer and he moved to Faye Bramley. Whilst Faye hasn’t been training under her own licence for very long, she is making a real name for herself. As a general rule, trainers don’t like taking on horses from top yards, with the logic that it will be hard to improve them. However, Faye is bucking that trend. She took Glengouly and Paggane from Willie Mullins of all people, and she turned them both around. She has won two nice races with Paggane, and won the December Gold Cup with Glengouly!
Whilst most recently with Gary Brown, Walking On Air was formerly with Nicky Henderson, and he was rated 139 at his peak. He turned nine in the New Year and whilst he’s not getting any younger, it will be fascinating to see what Faye can do with him. This will be his third start for the stable and I think this race could have been the long term plan all along.
His tongue tie returns together with first time cheekpieces!
There are a couple of interesting things to note about Walking On Air since he has been with Faye Bramley. Firstly, it was a very ballsy decision to send him straight into the Scottish National on his first start for the stable. Unfortunately, he was pulled up, and he was lame after the race. Between his post-race lameness, and a hard season that included a fall here and a tough race at Cheltenham, that can easily be forgiven.
The handicapper left him unaltered at 128 after that run, and after a 249-day break, he returned at Newbury. On paper, that was a very poor run. In a field of just eight runners, he came in seventh, 77 lengths behind the winner. Fitness is an obvious excuse, as it was his first time back after a lengthy break. Even more interesting though is that his usual tongue tie was left off.
Not only does that usual tongue tie return for today’s race, it is also accompanied by first time cheekpieces which is eye-catching. In addition to that, former Champion Jockey - Brian Hughes has been booked for the ride and this will be his first ride for Faye Bramley, so that is notable too!
Can Walking On Air redeem himself after his final fence fall last year?
In terms of positives, he has proven form in the book from this race from last year where he looked the winner until coming down at the final fence. He has now switched to a trainer who has done a great job at turning horse’s careers around. His tongue tie was left off last time out but returns here, along with first time cheekpieces. With that recent run under his belt, he should be primed for this and he is only 2lb higher this time around. Last but not least, Brian Hughes is also an eye-catching jockey booking.
In terms of the negatives, his most recent form at face value is awful. His last three runs have seen him finishing 11th beaten 23 lengths, pulled up and then 8th beaten 77 lengths. On the bare form, that makes him hard to fancy but I feel he’s had excuses for those runs and this could have been a long term plan for his connections. We also have no guarantee that he would have won last year as a lot can happen from the final fence to the line and Docpickedme is a tough horse in a battle.
Considering the positives and negatives, I think he is underestimated at a price of 8/1 and could easily be good enough to win this. However, I’m relying on reading between the lines here in the hope of a greater plan, as his bare form in the book recently is woeful. There is a chance I have this wrong and he’s simply going the wrong way. As a result, whilst I’m happy to play a 1pt stake, I’m going to play it Win only. I feel he either has been laid out for this and he’ll take some beating or he will continue to go the wrong way, hopefully it’s the former!
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