NAP of the Day: Talented jumper can take advantage of low Flat mark

The Jumps remains my focus - sort of - on Friday with the NAP of the Day being a useful hurdler who reverts to the Flat off what I fancy can prove a highly-attractive mark.

GIVEMEFIVE ought to be extremely hard to beat in this 0-75 handicap over 1m6f.

The four-year-old son of Holy Roman Emperor, who's owned by golf stars Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka, joined Harry Derham's yard in November last year and was campaigned as a juvenile hurdler, making a splash in that discipline.

He won his first two starts by a combined 20 lengths, before a close second in the G2 Adonis Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton back in February. He signed off a couple of months later with a respectable fourth in another Grade 2 at Fairyhouse.

On Friday, he returns to the Flat for his seasonal reappearance, off a mark of 70. I think that could be very lenient.

His last outing on the level was at Roscommon just over a year ago, for previous handler Johnny Murtagh, and he got off the mark, off 64, at the 10th attempt. Importantly, that was his first try over 1m3f+.

That form has been franked in the meantime, with the runner-up rising 10 pounds in the handicap throughout the season and the two in third and fourth winning their subsequent starts by wide margins.

The extra three furlongs on Merseyside with conditions likely to be very testing - it's officially soft to heavy at Haydock and as a local boy I can confirm the rain doesn't look like stopping anytime soon - should play into the selection's strengths.

As per the 16:35 Haydock Odds, there's not much to separate three of his rivals - namely Billy No Mates, Squeezebox, Surrey Belle and Hurtle Wallop.

The former is on the decline at eight years old and as far as I'm concerned the latter requires further relief from the handicapper. Surrey Belle doesn't appear particularly well-in either.

Squeezebox rates the biggest danger in my book, but ultimately if Givemefive is even nearly fit and ready then he can make easy work of this field.

Click the link to see all Today's Horse Races

Tune into Betfred Insights regularly to find my NAP of the Day