Nap of the Day: 9/4 best bet for New Year’s Day

There are nine meetings scheduled across the UK & Ireland on New Year's Day, including a seven-race offering from the home of Jumps racing.

We go to Cheltenham for the Nap of the Day as one of last season's leading juveniles is fancied to build on an encouraging first start in open company.

It's good to soft at Prestbury Park at time of publication, but there's rain forecast throughout New Year's Day morning and into the early afternoon, which is ideal for Gary Moore's SALVER ahead of the Grade 2 Relkeel Hurdle.

The five-year-old half-brother to Saldier excels on soft ground, evidenced by his emphatic 21-length victory in Grade 2 company at Chepstow in December 2023 before placing third in the Triumph Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.

He finished just over six lengths behind outstanding prospect Majborough at HQ and was over seven-and-a-half lengths clear of the rest of the field. It was a mighty performance.

Especially when you consider how the juvenile form has worked out all round. Triumph runner-up Kargese won a Grade 1 at Punchestown after giving Sir Gino - the odds-on favourite for the Arkle after his sensational chasing debut over Christmas - a proper race at Aintree a month prior. There's more examples, but I'd end up missing the New Year countdown if mentioning them all.

Salver had his first run in open company in the Gerry Fielden at Newbury in late November and I thought it was a highly-encouraging return to action.

Off a mark of 143 carrying topweight, on faster ground than he'd have liked, the then four-year-old finished a staying-on fourth, six-and-a-half lengths off the pace.

He's reportedly come out of that race very well and connections are expecting significant improvement, particularly for the step up in trip and hopefully easier conditions.

He doesn't need to improve all that much to take this, in my opinion. I think the Ascot Hurdle won by Lucky Place, with the reopposing Golden Ace back in fourth, was good but not spectacular, while Langer Dan can't be trusted to run to his best form at this stage of the season.

Gowel Road is an admirable type and he'll probably run his race, but it'd be disappointing if he was able to win. Same goes for Thunder Rock, who looks completely out of sorts at this moment in time.

Even if the rain misses Cheltenham, or it doesn't ease as much as I'm hoping, Salver can win this. I see him going off 15/8 or shorter and if it becomes a proper test, dare I say he'll be hard to beat.

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