Horse Racing Tips: 5/4 French raider heads Wednesday’s best bets

There's a mixture of Flat and Jumps racing in the UK and Ireland on Wednesday, with five meetings taking place across the afternoon and into the evening.

Among my Wednesday horse racing tips is a well-bred debutant raiding from France at Bangor.

12:25 Bangor - Jagwar @ 7/4

JAGWAR has been found an excellent opportunity to follow up his chasing debut success at Wetherby 28 days ago in this 16-runner handicap chase over 2m4f at Bangor, representing the training partnership of Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero.

The slightly longer trip shouldn’t be an issue for a five-year-old Karaktar gelding with abundant stamina potential in his pedigree. He won going away at Wetherby on similar ground, achieving a much improved Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 132 which suggests he has got off lightly with a 5lb rise to a new mark of 123.

This is an Extra Place Race, with 4 places on offer instead of 3 at 1/5 the odds for all each-way bets.

13:25 Bangor - Ask Me Early @ 18/1

There's a £40,000 pot up for grabs over fences at Bangor in this 10-runner handicap chase, and Harry Fry’s representative ASK ME EARLY makes considerable each-way appeal having finished third in this race on his seasonal reappearance on heavy ground in 2022.

The 10-year-old also made a winning reappearance in November 2021 and, with Fry going 3-9 (33 per cent) in the past 14 days, there is clearly some cause for optimism that he can be competitive at the first time of asking in 2024-25.

Fry is 2-9 (29 per cent) with his runners over fences at Bangor. Bryan Carver is in the saddle and he is 14-76 (18 per cent) when riding for the yard.

The ground is likely to be good to soft come post time and more suitable for a horse who is effective on such a surface and having their first start in 220 days. He is 8lb lower than in 2022, featuring off a mark of 131 which compares favourably with the 144 RPR the selection has achieved over 3m over fences in the past.

13:55 Bangor - Do It Again @ 5/4

Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm have Il Est Francais in their Chantilly yard, the current favourite for Kempton’s Grade 1 King George over Christmas, and it feels significant that they are raiding from France with their representative DO IT AGAIN in the eight-runner Junior “National Hunt” Hurdle, also at Bangor.

George and Zetterholm went 3-15 (20 per cent) in the past fortnight.

Donald McCain’s two representatives, Aotano and Jack The Boss, are set to carry 7lb penalties as the only previous winners in this contest, and his runners are never to be sniffed at on this course. Brian Hughes rides Aotano, and he is probably the one to beat, but neither set a particularly taxing form standard and the coast is clear for a well-bred debutant like Do It Again to spoil the party.

The selection is by the sire Galiway whose progeny are doing well over hurdles, and he may have too much speed for this opposition on his hurdling debut, being a half-brother to the useful 1m2f Flat winner Asassi.

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