Betfred NAP of the Day – Jac’s the lad on Monday

A new week of racing action commences on Monday with four meetings taking place in Britain. They race on the Flat at Catterick, Yarmouth and Windsor, while there is jumps fare from Worcester in the mix too.

Our Monday NAP has twice hit the crossbar in as many starts over fences at Worcester and is fancied to make it third time lucky now for trainer Deborah Cole.

Today's Horse Races

15:00 Worcester - Jac Jumper @ 9/2

An afternoon of National Hunt racing comes from Worcester and JAC JUMPER is fancied to land the Alan Edwards 70^th Birthday Celebration Handicap Chase for trainer Deborah Cole.

The five-year-old French import had experience jumping fences at Pau and Auteuil in the spring of 2023, but his four-race sequence over hurdles upon joining this yard is best forgotten.

He switched to chasing in June and has twice finished second over course and distance since.

He went down a short-head behind Calvic here in a Novices' Handicap Chase at the start of the summer and was then held behind She Has Notions last time, as Martin Keighley's charge produced a much improved showing back from a layoff.

To give Jac Jumper his due credit, that race didn't pan out perfectly well. Claiming rider Chris Ward was forced to switch in and out around rivals in the home straight and then eventually had to try and squeeze through on the running rail to get past old foe Calvic.

Once he got past that rival, he ran on strongly in vain behind the winner, but did enough to repel fast-finishing Gone In Sixty to hold onto second spot.

The assessor has tagged on another 2lb for that run but a mark of 102 may well be within reach here.

There are some consistent rivals, with Crypto Currency and Blazing Court amongst those that fit that bill, whilst Up For Appeal is a potential threat for trainer Christian Williams if his jumping holds up.

Jac Jumper has excelled in that department in both runs here so far and another solid round of fencing will stand him in good stead to open his account over fences having finished in the frame in three of four starts so far in France and Britain over these obstacles. His consistency should be rewarded now.

 Nap Of The Day, with Betfred Insights.