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

Horse racing tips today:

• 16:25 Southwell – Catch Cunningham – 1pt @ 3/1 with BetVictor
• 19:00 Southwell – Landlordtothestars – 1pt @ 4/1 with Bet365
• 19:30 Southwell – Stratocracy – 1pt e/w @ 22/1 with William Hill

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

16:25 Southwell – Catch Cunningham – 1pt @ 3/1

Catch Cunningham isn’t too hard to find. He’s a well-handicapped runner on the peak of his efforts for Kevin Ryan and made a pleasing start to life with the Michael Herrington yard at Wolverhampton, travelling well into contention before finishing a half-length behind a subsequent winner.

Going back up a couple of pounds isn’t ideal but that was his first outing for 129 days, so he’s entitled to improve for it, and he looks to have more to offer on the All-Weather. That was only his second start in this code and the other yielded a novice win at Newcastle back in 2021.

The return to a straight track should help him, he’s drawn close enough to Jeans Maite to get a nice tow and the yard’s runners tend to act well on this track. If he doesn’t go backwards from that reappearance, which is always a worry, then it’s hard to see how he won’t be involved again.

19:00 Southwell – Landlordtothestars – 1pt @ 4/1

Landlordtothestars returns from a couple of months off the track but his form in handicaps after a break of 50 days or more reads 1-2-7-1. For the second placed finish, he was only beaten a head and the seventh was by less than three lengths over a C&D he found to be too sharp.

Five runs in December and January yielded two wins, a second, a third and a fourth, and he was never beaten by more than half a length. One of the victories came over C&D as well, beating a progressive sort who has won three times since, and it’s safe to say he is suited to Southwell.

His mark is on the rise and he’s up to 70 for the first time in his career, but he’s not terribly exposed and is still only a four year old so there could be improvement to come yet. This is a decent race for the grade but if he can pick up where he left off, he’s one of the main contenders to win.

19:30 Southwell – Stratocracy – 1pt e/w @ 22/1

Assuming you can get the four places up for grabs with many firms, Stratocracy may be worth taking a chance on. Kevin Frost is due a change of luck this year, with his stable only having a single winner from 76 runs in 2024. However, 15 of them have hit the places and the luck will turn.

This horse is probably not the most straight-forward in the world and hung to his right when running at this track last time, but was still in there pitching coming down to the furlong pole and only weakened out of it late when I think his stamina ebbed away.

Dropping back to 7f could be a help and the form of that last race is strong. The winner scored again next time and the third home won twice at Newcastle when also racing over a shorter trip. This is a weaker contest with regard to the grade and I wouldn’t be shocked if he ran much better as well.

Jack Mitchell will probably elect to ride a quieter race this time, as I’m not sure leading the pack is what he wants to do, and he’s the main man for the yard when they have a live runner. 19 winners from 96 runners gives them an impressive 20% strike-rate and hopefully it could be enhanced today.

You can get involved in our horse racing tips today by signing up at one of these new betting sites where you'll find exclusive offers.

You'll discover multiple betting markets on horse racing today and plenty of other sports at these online betting sites too, while you might even score yourself some free bets.

All gambling sites recommended by The Independent are fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.