NAP of the Day: Illusionist to deceive front-running Hamilton rivals

Plenty of midweek racing action lies in store across Britain and Ireland with six meetings scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

There's jumps fare from Newton Abbot, Cartmel and Wexford while they race on the Flat at Beverley, Hamilton and Kempton (AW).

Wednesday's NAP promises to be sharper for his recent comeback run and heads for Hamilton to contest a sprint event that might set up nicely for him.

The minimum five-furlong trip awaits the eight contenders in this Handicap at Hamilton Park and recent winners Oriental Prince and Hurt You Never look sure to be popular in the betting for Jim Goldie and Adrian Nicholls' respectively.

The four-year-old Oriental Prince has rattled off quite the sequence on synthetic surfaces since the end of 2024, posting figures of 11210111 between December and April over 5f/6f.

He took a couple of goes on grass to adjust to a career-high mark but won over 7f at Haydock this month.

He drops back in distance and is raised a further 3lb and his front-running style could be compromised here by the presence of the mare Hurt You Never.

Nicholls' charge has 11 wins on her CV, including both previous starts at Hamilton Park. The most recent of those was this month but she, too, likes to dominate from the front and she folded at Carlisle nine days ago in a weaker race than this off this mark when taken on for the lead.

That pair may be at the front end of the market and ILLUSIONIST is preferred for Grant Tuer.

The experienced gelding has five wins and eight placed efforts from 36 career starts on turf. He is 0-11 on synthetic surfaces and was entitled to need the run at Southwell last month after 325 days off.

He typically likes to be held up behind the pace and he is now 1lb below his last winning mark. Indeed, he won a Class 2 event at York in 2022 from a mark of 88, 12lb higher than his current perch.

He has won at Hamilton over 6f in the past in this grade and all four course visits since then have come in Class 2 company.

He's down in the ratings, down in grade and should have the cobwebs blown off following that spin around Southwell. If the front pair do lock horns for the lead, Oliver Stammers' partner could well be the one picking up the pieces in the final furlong.

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

Tune into Betfred Insights regularly to find our experts' Nap of the Day