Sunday Sedgefield racing tip: No Regrets lines up for chasing success
- Steve Jones
- 29 January 2023
Tipstrr horse racing expert Steve Jones has been examining Sunday's race cards to pick out his daily betting bargain in the shape of No Regrets, whom he believes looks set to shine in this sphere.
The early market leaders for this handicap do not look particularly convincing, with Beat The Edge still a maiden after being beaten in Class 5 company the last twice, yet he is up another two pounds here.
Meanwhile,Tom Creen and Cash Again finished first and second in the same race last time out, but that was a much weaker handicap and they are penalised by five and two pounds respectively as a result, despite the latter being winless since March 2021.
Looking beyond those vulnerable fancies, No Regrets catches the eye as a useful hurdler who was rated 124 in that sphere, but he was always meant to be a chaser before an injury delayed his chasing career significantly.
13:25 (Sedgefield) No Regrets
He looks an attractive proposition off his current mark of just 105, especially down in a very moderate Class 4 handicap like this, despite just three runs over fences so far, two of which can easily be discarded.
His chasing debut was his first run for 562 days, so he would certainly have needed that, while his most recent run was on unsuitably heavy ground (he had been well beaten over hurdles on his only previous run on heavy going).
In between those two runs, he ran a very promising race in what was a particularly strong handicap over 20.5 furlongs of soft ground at Ayr in late November.
No Regrets did some decent late work without being put under pressure after having been outpaced by the principals. This more testing track will suit and, after three runs back from his long absence, he should be ready to raise his game in this sphere.
His first three runs over fences were all in Class 3 handicaps that were a lot stronger than this moderate Class 4, while the drying ground will provide similar conditions to when he won a big-field handicap by a long way in his hurdling days.
He was given an opening mark of 117, and despite the potential shown at Ayr, that mark has now fallen to what appears to be an undervalued 105, so this looks an appropriate race for Nicky Richards to target with him.
Richards also has a spectacularly good career record with chasers at this venue, returning 17/45, while jockey Danny McMenamin (two wins from his last four completions) has the top strike rate at this venue with 20%.
All things taken into account, this could be the day that No Regrets gets his belated chasing career off the ground.
Of the others, If Not For Dylan actually finished second of nine in last season's final of this series (a Class 2 held at Carlisle in late March), so he has to be of interest.
He is only two pounds higher and can be forgiven his last three runs, all of which came on far softer ground than he would prefer.
The drying conditions definitely go in his favour and, if the first-time cheekpieces do the trick, he will out-run his big early price.
