Horse racing tips: James Boyle's best bets for Wednesday

Horse racing tips today:

• 14:12 Catterick – John Kirkup – 1pt @ 9/2 with Bet365
• 16:17 Catterick – Happier – 1pt @ 15/2 with William Hill

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meeting at Catterick with two 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 Catterick – John Kirkup – 1pt @ 9/2

John Kirkup didn’t look fit when returning over 6f here a few weeks ago and could step forward. He moved fine through the race and had a chance in the straight, but a combination of sharpness and stamina led to him weakening out of contention to finish in sixth place.

He’ll appreciate the drop back to the minimum trip, especially in a race where they should be going hard from an early stage, and this is also a drop from a 0-75 to a 0-60. None of the horses who beat him last time would be eligible to line up today and hopefully his class can tell.

16:17 Catterick – Happier – 1pt @ 15/2

Happier also shaped as if she would be a likely improver for a run when making her seasonal return at Thirsk two weeks back. She wasn’t too far away coming down to the furlong pole but had been under a drive beforehand and didn’t seem to be fully tuned up for the day.

Getting onto a less demanding surface could be a help and David Allan takes over in the saddle from an inexperienced apprentice. It hints that better may be expected and I think she’ll like this track. She has previous in this sort of grade as well and from a mark of 65, she’s weighted to be involved.

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