Cheltenham racing tip: Improving Malina Girl to continue progress in stayers’ chase

14:25 Cheltenham: Favourite From The Sun Now Daily Handicap Chase (3 miles 2 furlongs)  

The bookies have warm favourite Broadway Boy as the one to beat, and that’s hardly surprising as only one horse has managed to do that in his last five outings, the most recent of which saw him win convincingly here for the Twiston-Davies yard at the November meeting.

Planet Sport Bet: Bet £20+ cash on any runner in the race and if Broadway Boy wins by more than 4 lengths, get a £5 Free Bet

Easy As That and City Chief both enjoyed promising campaigns last term and should be better for having an early-season pipe-opener out of the way, while top-weighted Protektorat is lurking in the wings and is always capable of producing a quality performance on his day.

Of the other principals it’s hard to ignore any Paul Nicholls runner these days, and Threeunderthrufive showed enough on his return from a breathing op to suggest he has plenty more top performances in his eight-year-old legs, leaving jockey Harry Cobden singing his praises in his regular Planet Sport Bet blog:

READ MORE: Harry Cobden previews his Cheltenham rides in his Planet Sport Bet Blog 

However, Tipstrr racing pundit Richard Hutchinson, who runs his Read Between The Lines service on Tipstrr, is keeping faith with a progressive mare who has won for him before, as his analysis below explains:

Malina Girl won impressively for us last time she ran at Cheltenham less than four weeks ago and we see no reason not to go with her again here.

The six-year-old remains unexposed at staying trips and she loved every yard of that even longer trip last time, sitting behind the leaders and quickening away from her rivals, winning by a cosy 10 lengths.

Gavin Cromwell had three staying chase winners at Cheltenham’s earlier meetings, and all three were entered for this race, so it looks like a tip in itself that Malina Girl was selected to represent the yard here.  

She has been raised 11 pounds for that previous win, but Cromwell has called in a good five-pound conditional rider in Conor Stone-Walsh to help offset that rise.

Her price at the time of writing isn’t huge, but that still appears to represent decent value in this nine-runner race, so I recommend a 2-point win, and would split that each-way if her price drifts beyond 6/1.

 

• Suggested bet: Malina Girl in the 14:25 at Cheltenham

• Tip and preview provided by Richard Hutchinson who provides racing tips as Read Between The Lines on Tipstrr

 

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