Horse Racing tips: Timeform’s best bets for Newbury on Friday

The boffins mark your card for every race in Berkshire on Friday afternoon.

Timeform’s Newbury Tips

13:30 – Matters Most
14:05 – Gisburn
14:40 – Shiva Shakti
15:15 – Military Order
15:50 – Novel Legend
16:25 – Tafreej
16:55 – Fakhama
17:30 – Reminder

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

13:30 – Matters Most

MATTERS MOST is by the Group 1-winning juvenile Advertise and out of a mare who won over six furlongs as a two-year-old, so he is certainly bred to be a precocious sort. He clearly looks the part as well having cost 500,000 guineas as a yearling and it will be interesting to see what he can do on debut for Ralph Beckett, who is well capable of readying a newcomer.

14:05 – Gisburn

GISBURN shaped encouragingly after five months off when finishing fourth at Doncaster last time, doing well to be beaten only four and a quarter lengths having been caught on the wrong part of the track. He’s starting to look dangerously well handicapped judged on the pick of his form and this could be a good opportunity for him to end his long losing run. His two previous career wins both came over this course and distance and the booking of James Doyle very much catches the eye, too.

14:40 – Shiva Shakti

SHIVA SHAKTI showed lots of ability when filling the runner-up spot on her debut at Yarmouth in October, passing the post just a length behind the winner despite running green. That form sets the standard here on Timeform’s weight-adjusted ratings and she is sure to improve with the experience under her belt. This is likely to prove a very informative maiden and Shiva Shakti rates a solid selection to get off the mark at the second attempt for a yard with an excellent record in the race.

15:15 – Military Order

MILITARY ORDER confirmed the promise of his debut with a comfortable victory at Newmarket in October, hitting the front two furlongs out and gradually asserting from there to land the spoils by three quarters of a length. A full brother to the Derby and King George winner Adayar, he looks a colt of huge potential and it will be disappointing if he can’t make a winning return in this novice event on his way to bigger and better things.

15:50 – Novel Legend

NOVEL LEGEND produced a career best after five months off to regain the winning thread at Kempton last time, finding plenty when joined in the final furlong to get the verdict by a length and a quarter. This will be tougher following a 4 lb rise in the weights, but he remains totally unexposed as a stayer and is fancied to prove equal to the task for James Fanshawe, who has his team in really good nick (75% of horses running to form).

16:25 – Tafreej

TAFREEJ barely needed to improve to justify short odds on his final two-year-old appearance at Yarmouth in October, but there was plenty to like about the way he got the job done, drawing clear in the final furlong to win readily by two and a quarter lengths. He now makes the switch to handicaps and an opening British Horseracing Authority mark of 84 is unlikely to prove beyond him somewhere down the line, with further progress on the cards now stepping up to seven furlongs for his powerful yard.

16:55 – Fakhama

FAKHAMA is by Kingman and out of a mare who showed smart form in South Africa, notably winning a couple of Grade 1 races. The dam has already produced the smart Mujtaba (by Dubawi) for these connections and Fakhama certainly has plenty to recommend her on paper, so she gets the vote to make a winning debut at the expense of several other interesting sorts.

17:30 – Reminder

REMINDER is by Dubawi and a half-sister to several winners, including a couple of smart sorts by Galileo in the shape of Call To Mind and Recorder. The dam, Memory, was a talented performer in her own right, notably winning the Albany Stakes and Cherry Hinton Stakes as a two-year-old. It’s hard to find any flaws in the pedigree and the main question is simply whether Reminder will be forward enough to show the full extent of her ability on debut.

Timeform’s Newbury Tips

13:30 – Matters Most
14:05 – Gisburn
14:40 – Shiva Shakti
15:15 – Military Order
15:50 – Novel Legend
16:25 – Tafreej
16:55 – Fakhama
17:30 – Reminder

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

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