Today’s Horse Racing Tips: Thursday’s Nap of the Day for April 17 at Cheltenham

Get the latest horse racing preview for Thursday, April 17 horse racing action including the Nap of the Day selected amongst every race on every card in Britain and Ireland. Read on to find the best tips and predictions in addition to the latest betting offers.

Today’s Horse Racing betting tips: Thursday, April 17 at Cheltenham

Can a Forgotten Contender Light Up Cheltenham This Afternoon?

• Springs A Girl is 2 from 6 over hurdles and produced a career-best RPR of 109 just two starts ago
• She carries a light weight of 10st3lb thanks to Daire McConville’s 7lb claim, giving her a tactical edge on Cheltenham’s testing New Course
• Trainer Martin Keighley has had a runner pull off a major upset this season already, with Springs A Girl herself winning at 80/1

Nap of The Day

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As spring edges in, Cheltenham hosts an enticing midweek card packed with depth and competitive racing. Punters and racing enthusiasts are treated to a diverse blend of established names and emerging talents in a series of closely-matched handicaps. The feature on today’s schedule is the 2:45 Catesby Estates Mares’ Challenger Series Final Handicap Hurdle, a Class 2 contest offering a fascinating clash of unexposed potential and handicapping puzzles over 2m4½f on the New Course.

The field is brimming with proven winners, ranging from seasoned mares like Midnight Ginger, who recently ran a creditable second at Ludlow, to upwardly mobile types such as Bethpage, who is 4 from 7 in handicap hurdles. Some are returning with fitness questions, like Ile De Jersey, who shaped better than the bare result after a long layoff last month, while others, such as Shantwopointfive, appear poised to build on recent efforts.

The race includes recent scorers Mermaids Cave, Molto Bene, and Jena d’Oudairies, the latter a lightly-raced six-year-old from a top yard with a 100% strike rate over this trip. Trainers like Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls field entries with serious potential, but several runners are stepping into this level for the first time. Tactically, it’s a contest where early pace and positioning may be vital, given how the New Course tends to reward strong travelling types that can conserve energy before the long climb to the line.

Today’s action also provides punters with a good spread of trainer representation, and while many of the bigger yards have standout entries, there’s every reason to look beyond the obvious names for value — especially in a race as unpredictable as this one.

Nap of the Day: Springs A Girl to win the 2:45 Cheltenham

There’s a quiet confidence behind Springs A Girl, a mare who might not command market support but is capable of disrupting expectations once again. Despite being largely overlooked, she possesses a profile that suggests her best days may still lie ahead, particularly in conditions akin to what she’ll encounter this afternoon.

What makes her an appealing selection is a combination of factors often missed in the top-of-the-market focus. Though she can race keenly, she has still won three times in nine starts, with two of those victories coming over hurdles. Her latest run, a narrow second at Ludlow in a higher-grade Class 3 contest, showed notable improvement on her previous effort when she was beaten a fair distance in a longer trip at Market Rasen. That second-place finish, where she gave a strong account behind Looking As You Are, came on ground very similar to today’s — good to soft — and over a trip only marginally further than the 2m4½f she faces here.

Her Racing Post Rating of 109 for that effort is her best to date, suggesting she’s trending in the right direction. The handicapper has left her mark untouched, meaning she gets to run off the same official rating of 109, yet she’s effectively dropping in class compared to recent outings. Daire McConville retains the ride and continues to claim 7lb, which is another asset, giving her a featherweight of just 10st3lb to carry against some rivals lugging significantly more.

Trainer Martin Keighley has only sent out one winner in the past fortnight from 18 runners, but his mare arrives fresher than most and has proven she can defy market expectations — evidenced by her 80/1 success earlier in the season at Stratford. In a field full of exposed types and others with question marks over consistency or class, Springs A Girl has scope to improve again, and given her profile, she’s certainly one to keep onside this afternoon.

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