Thursday 1st January 2015

Happy New Year, I hope you had a great evening and fingers crossed 2015 is a prosperous one.

Happy Birthday to all the racehorses around the globe who are a year older today, I hope the horses running this afternoon had an early night!

Competitive racing today with plenty of meetings taking place, I’ve placed just the one bet at Cheltenham in the 12:45. Alfie Spinner is a horse that should have won plenty more races than he has and should also be higher than it's official rating. I know connections are very keen to have a go at the Grand National but Alfie Spinner needs to go up quite a few pounds to get in the Aintree showpiece and missed the cut last year.

Trained by Nick Williams Alfie Spinner ran a cracker over the national fences last time out in the Beecher Chase, the horse looked the winner for majority of the race but got outpaced on the home straight before running on again strongly to finish 4^th beaten just 4 lengths. The trip of three miles two is the same today as it was at Aintree but on a much stiffer track, I would expect jockey Noel Fehily to try and make all and run his rivals into the ground.

You can guarantee Alfie Spinner will be given the kitchen sink as he must win a race soon to have any chance of making the weights in the Grand National, today looks a decent opportunity to do just that, priced at 6-1 I’ve had a few quid EW.

I’ve also backed him for the National at 170-1 on Betfair, although I’ve taken those odds he’s still over 100-1 and I couldn’t put you off a £10 at a huge price, if Alfie Spinner wins this afternoon he'll be a 33-1 shot for Aintree come 12:55.