Lucky 15 Tips: Fabulous Friday fare at Newbury

ITV are screening four cracking, competitive-looking heats from Newbury on Friday so that's the perfect vehicle for our Lucky 15 tips.

We've been amongst the winners pretty much all week and let's see if we can head into Saturday with a full head of steam. Newbury's Friday card kicks in at 12:15, with the first of our four at 13:50. 

Horse Racing Odds

Fast Racing Results

13:50 - Regent's Stroll @ 15/8

The great Johnny Francome is honoured in the race title of this one - the silky-smooth seven-time champion jockey that I'll forever remember courtesy of his relatively short-lived but absolutely magnificent association with the sublime Sea Pigeon.

G2 novice chasers go 2m 4f in pursuit of a splendid £42k purse, and our selection is a six-year-old Walk In The Park gelding owned by a group that includes Sir Alex Ferguson, Ged Mason and others - Regent's Stroll.

Paul Nicholls trains, and Harry Cobden, who else, has the riding assignment. This fella's smart - seven starts, four wins - and he earned a rating of 143 over timber. He was favourite to beat The New Lion in the Challow here last December, and got to within 7.25l of that Champion Hurdle aspirant after making a hash of the last.

He makes his chase debut this afternoon and connections will be on tenterhooks, wondering if they've got another cracker to go to war with. I'm thinking - every chance.

14:25 - Heltenham @ 9/2

Team Skelton now, and an eight-year-old gelding that has scored a very respectable eight times in 29 spins.

Heltenham is fresh from a wind op after fading late on seasonal reappearance at Wetherby 13 days ago. This is a trappy race in my view, with any number of potential winners, even though only seven are slated to start as I write.

Given that the yard have started so strongly, and that the horse is a course-and-distance winner, this is just the kind of occasion for our selection to shine - and at what looks a value price.

15:00 - Strong Leader @ 9/4

Strong race - some powerful yards and their staying hurdlers do battle for around £43k, over just in excess of 3m.

Our hope is the eight-year-old Passing Glance gelding Strong Leader, trained by Olly Murphy, and ridden by Sean Bowen. Classy operator, seven wins from 17 starts, and fresh from scoring at Wetherby in a G2 at the start of November.

That was his pipe-opener for the season and he could well come on a bit for the run. He's kept some pretty good company throughout his career - Noble Yeats, Bob Olinger and Langer Dan among them - and meets some tasty rivals here.

He prevailed cosily in this very race last year and that was without the benefit of a run. Big chance.

15:35 - Diamond Ri @ 4/1

Another yard that's been a massive danger to all this term is that of Dorset-based Joe Tizzard, and he bids to improve a tremendous strike-rate of around 37% with his six-year-old gelding Diamond Ri.

Regular pilot Brendan Powell has the mount, and the only caveat is that the horse must overcome an absence of some 590 days! He's lightly-raced as a consequence, and has scored twice from five starts.

This is in fact his handicap debut, and we're taking plenty on trust, of course. The familiar colours of the Wychwood Partnership are a common sight with Tizzard runners, and I'm only just getting over their Hartington just failing to get up at Haydock under the champ Sean Bowen last weekend, getting boxed in at a crucial late stage.

A small degree of compensation might just await here, fingers crossed!

If all four of our selections won, today's notional 50p win Lucky 15, at the prices indicated (they can of course fluctuate), would return around £320 for a £7.50 total stake.

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Lucky 15 Tips from Betfred Insights.