Saturday's Selections

A gallant effort from Nail 'M today and at one stage I thought he was going to reel in the eventual winner. He stays all day and there will definitely be races to be won with him over extreme trips on bad ground. The quality rises up another notch tomorrow with top class action at Sandown and Aintree while there are some interesting sorts due to go to post at Navan too.

I like the look of Storm Alert at Chepstow in the 2.00, and he would be a fittingly named winner given the weather at the moment. He returned to something like his best last time out at Exeter when he bumped into handicap blot Monbeg Gold, who looks a very useful type. Storm Alert ran a gallant race and though he finished up being well beaten in 2nd he was almost 30L ahead of the 3rd horse home. That run came over 2m7f on soft ground and this fella loves to get his toe in.

He runs from a few pounds out of the handicap tomorrow but Lucy Gardner offsets some of the weight with her 3lb claim. However, his last win came off 110 so even though he is wrong at the weights in this race he is theoretically still well treated on his best form. He ran a good race on his first visit to Chepstow back in September on ground that was plenty quick for him, and that bodes well for his chance here. At 16/1 he looks well worth a small interest each way.

Aintree sees the return to action of Jer's Girl, who hacked up for the blog (adv 12/1 here) on her hurdling debut at Limerick. She steps up in class in the opener, a listed heat, but with Dicky Johnson booked it would be no surprise to see her get some black type. She is short in the betting though, and I am not in the business of tipping up 2/1 shots!

One horse that could run well at a price tomorrow is Highland Lodge, who has his first run for new trainer James Moffatt in the Beecher Chase at 1.40. He was rated as high as 143 over fences back in 2013 and his mark has slipped down to 125 after a poor season last year. He is another one that has to run from out of the handicap but there is no doubting that he has the ability to figure here off a feather weight.

He showed he can handle the Grand National fences when he got round in 8th in this race last year off a mark of 132, fading late on the good to soft ground. It will be properly soft for this years renewal and it would be no surprise if he has been trained with another crack at this race in mind. At odds of 25/1 it is worth chancing that Moffatt has sweetened this fella up. If he returns to anything like his best he is a potentially very well treated horse.

STEVOS' SELECTIONS: 2.00 CHEPSTOW STORM ALERT 16/1 E/W
                                              1.40 AINTREE HIGHLAND LODGE 25/1 E/W