Horse racing tips: James Boyle's best bets for Friday at Newbury

Horse racing tips today:

• 14:12 Newbury – Divine Libra – 1.50pts e/w @ 9/1 with BetVictor
• 15:45 Newbury – L’Astronome – 1pt @ 20/1 with Betfred
• 16:15 Newbury – Al Shabab Storm – 1pt @ 6/1 with Bet365

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meeting at Newbury with three selections online.

As always, you’ll find up-to-date odds at the bookmakers, but our tipster’s predictions are researched early in the day and those prices could soon be moved in by the betting public. 

Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing, but check out today's racecards for all the latest movements. 

14:12 Newbury – Divine Libra – 1.50pts e/w @ 9/1

Divine Libra is on my list of sprinters to keep an eye on this season and hopefully he could make a winning comeback. This looks like the right sort of race for him and whilst both of the successes in his career have come on top of ground Timeform rated as heavy, he seems fine on anything.

Seven outings last season yielded two wins and a trio of top three finishes, with the only two below-par runs coming at 7f. He seems to stay that far granted a suitable level of opposition but runs like he’s most likely to prove progressive as a sprinter and he’s at the right trip today.

William Buick being booked to ride for the first time would suggest that the work has been done at home to have him ready first time up, and the Buick and Charles Hills combination went within a neck of landing this race last season. I think there’s a big chance they go one better this time.

15:45 Newbury – L’Astronome – 1pt @ 20/1

L’Astronome could prove to be a very generous price if a wind-op and time off the track has got him back to his best. He was a four-time winner in France, including at Group 2 level in 2022, then moved to Hugo Palmer in the middle of last season and ran a cracker on his stable debut at Chester.

That yielded a third placed finish behind Al Qareem, beaten little more than two-lengths, and looked like a run he could build on. He faced off against that rival in a Group 3 at Ascot next time but finished well behind in sixth, whilst the Karl Burke horse went on to win again.

Based on his Chester run, going up in trip isn’t a bad idea and one of his French successes came at 1m 7f. He has won when fresh before and though a mark of 105 is not going to be simple to overcome, he may prefer racing against handicappers. At 20/1, it might be worth throwing a dart.

16:15 Newbury – Al Shabab Storm – 1pt @ 6/1

Al Shabab Storm had a busy end to last season, making his debut in September and running another three times between then and the end of October. There were no huge improvements in terms of the figures produced but he did seem to be getting a bit more streetwise by the end.

The first two outings yielded placed efforts at 7f, then he dropped in trip at Goodwood on testing ground and comfortably defeated some subsequent winners. He stuck to sprinting at Doncaster next time but was pitched into a Listed race and found that to be a step too far.

On the plus side, he was still in the mix approaching the final furlong and hints that he’s going to prove better than a mark of 86. This is his first handicap attempt, he shouldn’t mind the ground or the track and should be able to improve over 7f as a three-year-old. If he’s fit, he has a chance.

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