Nap of the Day: Aston can pay for the Martinis for Henderson and co in Gerry Feilden

There is a feast of action on Saturday with top-class racing in Britain from Newbury, which is supported by quality cards at Newcastle and Doncaster. We also have an interesting meeting in Ireland to look forward to as the first day of Fairyhouse’s winter festival commences.

My Sunday Nap of the Day comes in the Gerry Feilden Handicap Hurdle (14:25) on Coral Gold Cup day at Newbury, a race with a rich history that even managed to unearth the Champion Hurdle winner in the 2019-20 season. 13 horses have been declared and this looks a lovely race to tackle from an each-way perspective with Betfred offering an enhanced four places.

14:25 Newbury Odds

Nicky Henderson loves this meeting and the Gerry Feilden has been particularly kind to him. The Seven Barrows trainer has saddled four winners of the race since 2014, including when the brilliant Epatante did the business a few seasons ago, while former stable stalwart L’Ami Serge is another big name to feature on the roll of honour.

Henderson’s first string Jeriko Du Reponet will doubtless carry the cash of plenty of punters on his handicap hurdle debut, given that he was considered a Supreme horse for the majority of last season.

Those plans went awry as he pulled up on the big day at Cheltenham and it was a similar story on his chasing debut at Sandown last month when a bad mistake four out put paid to his chances.

He arrives with baggage on this return to hurdles and simply can’t be trusted at the likely prices, so a better wager is surely Jeriko Du Reponet’s stablemate Aston Martini, who is a lightly raced five-year-old very much on the up.

Today's Horse Races

This is a quick enough turnaround for Aston Martini as she only ran at Bangor 13 days ago, but it looks significant that her top stable are happy to come here so soon afterward.

She ran a cracker over a trip that seemed to stretch her that day and surely would have won but for a mistake at the last after she jinked out to her right. That should put her spot on for this and she would have learned plenty ahead of just her second start in a handicap.

The selection was beaten only by a seasoned handicapper in Might I that day and could easily be arriving here with an enviable 4-5 record under rules.

After only a handful of runs, she remains capable of significant progress and she is at the right end of the handicap to make a splash in races such as this.

Aston Martini is seemingly versatile regarding ground conditions and Henderson took this out with the yard’s second string in 2020.

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