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

Horse racing tips today:

• 18:00 Southwell – Vitalline – 1pt @ 3/1 with Bet365
• 18:30 Southwell – Howth – 1pt @ 9/1 with William Hill

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meeting at Southwell with two selections now 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. 

18:00 Southwell – Vitalline – 1pt @ 3/1

Vitalline spent a while in the doldrums but was heavily backed when third at Kempton a few outings ago and has since placed twice. It’s clear that he’s on good terms with himself again, the return to shorter trips clearly suiting, and this looks like another winnable opportunity.

He was beaten two-lengths when second at Kempton last time out but the winner of that race was very well-handicapped on the peak of his form, and I don’t think there’s a rival of that quality in opposition today. He has a better draw as well and should have a big say.

18:30 Southwell – Howth – 1pt @ 9/1

Howth is not the simplest of rides and I’m glad to see that Rossa Ryan is booked. He got a great tune out of the horse on his sole attempt during last winter’s All-Weather season and they link up again aiming to exploit a now 7lb lower handicap mark.

There’s good reason for that reduction in rating and Howth was poor at Newcastle last time. He may have needed the run after four months off, however, and could be a different proposition now. Any price around the 8/1 mark seems fair to me and hopefully he can return to form.

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