Nap of the Day: Princess can rule in Ffos Las’ feature

The Cheltenham Festival has passed by for another year and it’s back to a more regular schedule next week. Monday’s jumping action is provided by Plumpton and Ffos Las while there is also an all-weather evening meeting from Wolverhampton to tempt the Flat racing crowd.

Ffos Las provides the race of the day, in the shape of the Sarnau Stables Joins Barry Murphy Racing "Welsh Gold Cup" Handicap Chase, for which a field of nine has been declared. It looks like a wide-open race, with several potential candidates.

Our Nap of the day runs in this race and the horse in question is trained by Sam Thomas is expected to bounce back to form.

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16:00 Ffos Las Odds

There are several angles from which to approach this race but the Sam Thomas-trained ALFIE’S PRINCESS gets the nod. She started off in a Listed mares’ bumper at Huntingdon back in December 2022 and ran a cracker to finish second.

Improving for the switch to hurdles, she won a mares’ novice at Chepstow on her first start over timber, with a couple of subsequent winners also coming out of the race, before she followed up under a penalty at Exeter, scoring by just shy of two lengths.

Alfie’s Princess was a fair second in a Grade 2 at Newbury that season and has taken well to fences so far.

Defying a 439-day absence to win comfortably at Wincanton on Boxing Day, the bounce factor may have come into play in her following run at Windsor soon after. She was beaten too far out for that run to be an accurate reflection of her ability, and a subsequent 2lb drop in the weights is only going to help her case.

Sam Thomas has established himself as a very shrewd trainer and whilst he doesn’t have a huge amount of horses, he’s always worth keeping an eye on as he has enjoyed 21 winners from 72 runners so far this season.

That gives him a more than healthy strike-rate of 29 percent through the course of the campaign, which is right up there with the very best.

While there are obvious challengers in Big City Roller, Puddlesinthepark and Fortunate Man, Alfie Princess can bounce back and become winner number 22 for Thomas.

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