A few qualifiers today but maybe yesterday used up all my luck for the next wee while...
Nwb 2.50 Jaleo 20/1 - My main bet in this race is Coeur De Lion but I do feel Jaleo is a winner waiting to happen somewhere/sometime. I've been interested in him since I saw him fall at the first this time last season, then get up and race past the others and clear all the way home. He's maybe just a very generous type but it grabbed my attention that day so I'm willing to save on him, just in case.
Nwb 3.00 - Obviously SFP is my big fancy for this with Coneygree as the main back-up but I've taken another three I think are just too long for their respective chances:
Double Ross (50/1) is 2lbs lower than when an excellent third to Native River last year. He didn't run again after that so maybe injured himself. The stable is in great form and I don't think they would run him if they thought he was totally past it.
Bigbadjohn is 100/1 in places but I've taken 80/1 with 7 places with Hills. This is a Feltham winner, albeit perhaps a somewhat substandard one. He's also got jumping issues as well as a temperamental ones - he could be the horse who put the 'mental' in temperamental - but I love him. He's a big beast of a horse and I've felt since the Feltham that he was a possible for this race so I can't really not back him!
Southfield Royale is 50s in places but I took 40/1 with the 7 places. Split Tea For Two and Native River in a very good Feltham the year before and ran pretty much to the same form in Minella Rocco's NH Chase, arguably the hottest renewal of that race in modern times if not ever. But it's been downhill since then, prompting the handicapper to lower him from 147 to 138. A wee bit like Double Ross, I can't believe a shrewd operator like Mulholland would run him here if he was past it and there was plenty of promise in his Badger Ales comeback run.