Nap of the Day: 3/1 Camulus ready for overdue win

On a chilly Thursday afternoon the Nap of the Day takes us to Ludlow, where top trainer Venetia Williams looks to work her magic with an eight-year-old gelding yet to taste victory in 10 starts.

It's fair to say Venetia Williams' eight-year-old CAMULUS has been an expensive failure to date.

The son of Walk In The Park is a half-brother to Irish Grand National winner Freewheelin Dylan who fetched £105k at the sales just over a fortnight after finishing a narrow second to Nick Rockett - a 150-rated chaser for Willie Mullins in the current day - between the flags in October 2021.

He was sent into training with Christian Williams in South Wales but failed to cut it under rules, recording form figures of 4423536 in seven starts between April '22 and March '23.

There was promise in a couple of those runs, which it should be noted all came on good to soft or better, but for the most part he was bitterly disappointing given his makeup and price tag.

It was decided a change in scenery was in order, as the gelding joined Venetia's operation in Hereford and made an encouraging start - at least relative to what he'd shown in the past - in a handicap chase at Lingfield in February last year.

Off a mark of 95, he finished runner-up by just a couple of lengths to the clearly well-treated Galway Mahler, who won eased down by seven lengths off five pounds higher next time out.

Camulus was extremely underwhelming at Wincanton weeks later, but I'm willing to put a line through that as his reappearance this term, at Lingfield in November, was back to something like.

He was 11 lengths adrift of the winner Aworkininprogress and runner-up Vision De Maine, separated by less than a length, but stayed on nicely despite tiring in desperate conditions to maintain a wide margin to the rest of the field.

The pair fighting out the finish were race-fit and both fresh off the back of victory. On top of that, the former has since gone in again and is now rated 113 (+12), while the latter was highly-tried, albeit unsuccessfully, in a Class 3 next time off a revised mark of 110 (+6).

The handicapper has dropped the selection two pounds for his exploits in Surrey and jockey Ned Fox - who's operating at an 18 per cent strike this term and is for me a big positive in these conditional jockeys' races - takes off a further three, meaning in theory he runs off a career-low 92 on Thursday.

He needs to back up his latest performance which is something he's never really been able to do, but it appears they've enjoyed a much clearer run this season and have waited plenty of time between appearances instead of turning him out quickly, so I'm prepared to chance he'll be able to.

Maybe he'll even build on it. He's entitled to as a relatively lightly-raced individual, especially over fences and on proper winter ground which the yard's runners typically relish.

If that proves the case, he can easily defy his lowly mark and recoup a very small fraction of that lofty fee.

Click the links for the latest Horse Racing Odds and Today's Horse Races

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