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

Horse racing tips today:

• 13:30 Chester – Trip To Rome – 1pt e/w @ 25/1 with Bet365
• 14:35 Chester – Woodstock City – 1pt @ 40/1 with William Hill
• 15:30 Ascot – Glenfinnan – 1pt @ 9/1 with BetVictor

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meetings at Chester and Ascot 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. 

13:30 Chester – Trip To Rome – 1pt e/w @ 25/1

Trip To Rome posted a terrible performance at Bath a couple of weeks ago and a major bounce back to form is required. However, he clearly couldn’t cope with the testing conditions that were offered up there and will have more of a chance to show his true worth on quicker ground.

He’s better judged on other performances and some of his All-Weather runs since debuting for this yard in February have been good. His third behind Doctor Khan Junior and Kingdom Come reads well, whilst he wasn’t disgraced on Finals Day from a tricky draw at Lingfield.

A sharp test over this extended 7f won’t be a problem and he has drawn stall five, which is reasonable. He should be able to get a nice position behind the speed and if they go quick enough to get him to relax, I suspect that he’ll hit the line well. I’d back him at 12/1 and he’s currently 25/1 best price.

14:35 Chester – Woodstock City – 1pt @ 40/1

Woodstock City is not a horse to trust given his last few performances and is another bet I’m fully prepared to be disappointed with. On the other hand, he’s a huge price from a falling mark if he can revive and he has had a gelding operation and three months off the track since his last run.

The sole source of hope from the horse since joining up with Ian Williams came on his stable debut at Wolverhampton, running third behind Talis Evolvere. That test was sharp enough for him and they didn’t go much of a gallop, so it had to go down as a promising beginning.

What has happened since hasn’t been pretty but he’s 10lbs lower in the weights now and a mark of 81 gives him a far better chance to find his form again. Returning to turf could help and if Williams has got him going again at home, it wouldn’t be impossible that he can have a say in this.

15:30 Ascot – Glenfinnan – 1pt @ 9/1

Glenfinnan won twice in nine outings for Andrew Balding and had some good form. He never really progressed as hoped last season but did win over 7f here in September and wasn’t disgraced on either subsequent start from a 6lb higher mark of 94, just looking too high in the weights to compete.

He has since moved to Michael Dods and looked in need of his return at Newmarket, where the draw wasn’t much help. That was also his first run over 6f since his debut and I think that sticking to this trip could yield improved form, especially with the handicapper easing his mark to 91.

In the right race, he should be able to overcome this rating and this could be that race. We do have to hope that he has taken a step forward for his reappearance run but the yard’s horses generally do and I doubt they’re making the trip to Ascot with one runner just to sharpen him up.

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