Monday 26th December 2016

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and Santa delivered gifts on the wish list.

On to Boxing Day, a day I always look forward more than Christmas itself, the racing is fantastic with nonstop action all day long. With 8 UK meeting taking place it’s impossible to get through each fixture in detail so I’ve tried to keep things simple.

The New One runs in the 2:40 at Kempton, this horse did us a favour a few weeks ago when winning at the morning price of 3-1. Unfortunately, the bookies aren’t making the same mistake again today but the 7-4 on offer still look worth taking. I’m hoping Yanworth needs further than 2 miles, in my eyes he looks a stayer and needed every yard of two miles three last time out to get his head in front.

With The New One seemingly going from the front now, I think he can make all and outpace Yanworth.

The big race of the day is mouth-watering, The King George at 3:15.

Built as Thistlecrack vs Cue Card, this could be one of the best races we’ve seen for a long time. Fair play to connections of both horses and Colin Tizzard for letting them take each other on.

I was with Cue Card in the past few days but I’ve now changed my mind after looking at the race a bit more. The reason being, I don’t think Cue Card is at his best around Kempton and his record on quicker ground as per today isn’t great. On figures, Cue Card is the best horse in the race by a distance but Thistlecrack might just be a superstar.

This will take a huge effort from Thistlecrack and we need to remember he’s still a novice, he’ll have to jump and gallop quicker than he has before over a fence. If Thistlecrack's jumping holds up we might be seeing a horse that can dominate the 3-mile chase division / Gold Cup for the next few years.

The New One & Thistlecrack double pays 5-1, I’ve backed them both and doubled them up.