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

Horse racing tips today:

• 13:15 Sandown – Equity Law – 1.50pts e/w @ 12/1 with Bet365
• 15:00 Sandown – Nostrum – 1pt @ 5/2 with William Hill

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meeting at Sandown 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. 

13:15 Sandown – Equity Law – 1.50pts e/w @ 12/1

I am certain that Equity Law is one of the best handicapped horses in this race. The only problem is whether he’s in the form needed to showcase his talent as he flopped at Bath on his seasonal return. On the plus side, we’re getting a very generous price to find out if he is.

That run can be excused on account of the ground as well, as it was very heavy and he doesn’t want such an ease. When granted a sound surface, he has shown no shortage of ability and one of those runs came here, finishing third behind a couple of well-handicapped sorts who got a better trip.

He’s still unexposed over the minimum distance, he looks scopey enough to find further improvement as a three-year-old and he’s in the right hands to progress. If he has stepped forward for his return and the ground is fine, he should be capable of at least grabbing a place.

15:00 Sandown – Nostrum – 1pt @ 5/2

Nostrum doesn’t take much finding but may still be a generous price at 5/2. He clearly has a lot of ability and goes well fresh, with success coming his way on each of this two seasonal debuts and the other came after two months off. Indeed, all three of his defeats have followed a recent run.

His Listed win at Newmarket last July was very impressive and led to him going off at odds-on in a Group 3 at Goodwood next time, but he didn’t seem to be at his best on soft ground. He then flopped altogether at York but was found to be lame afterwards.

This is a recovery mission, no doubt, but he’s still a horse with potential to rate higher than this level and he could be hard to stop if he’s fit to go. I’m sure he hasn’t shown his best form yet and now that he’s be fresh, it could be the time to catch him before he goes into Group 1 company again.

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