Best bets for day one of the Craven Meeting at Newmarket

Horse racing returns to HQ Newmarket today with the bet365 Craven Meeting on the Rowley Mile getting underway this afternoon.

The three-day fixture was first staged in 1771 with the feature race the Group Three bet365 Craven Stakes on the Thursday of the meeting, which traditionally acts as a trial for the first Classic of the season, the following month’s QIPCO 2000 Guineas run, of course, over the same course and distance.

It should feel as though spring is in the air, but it’s been wet and windy for weeks, though that said the going is good with the chance of some sunshine on the day.

Best bets for the horse racing at Newmarket

They get underway at 1.20 with the 5f British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes. Charlie Appleby's Golophin-owned duo of Al Qudra and Hallasan head the market unsurprisingly both looking bred for the job. Hallasan is a son of two-year-old sensation Pinatubo and is the pick of William Buick. It will be fascinating to see how the offspring of Pinatubo go this go this season and with this one being a half-brother to four winners it’s no surprise he’s odds-on. I would normally back a Moulton Paddocks debutant at HQ but with two in the race and at the prices, it’s a race to watch with interest but no bet.

With a number of tricky handicaps on the card, especially this early in the season, it’s not a day to go overboard end of story for me. I do fancy a couple starting with Slipofthepen in the 2.55 mile Mutasaabeq New For 2024 Handicap. The lightly raced four-year-old in the care of John and Thady Gosden can get the Turf season off the a lovely start for his owners Charles and Camilla; they have had a couple of winners on the All-Weather already. Beaten at odds-on in a Listed heat at Sandown last May in a tactical four-runner affair he had looked a horse with potential, winning twice at Kempton Park prior to that run. The lightly-raced chestnut has clearly had some problems but a mark of 97 may prove very lenient if team Gosden has him ready to go on his handicap debut. The yards runners have been going well and I am on at 9-2.

Bold Style for Charlie Appleby and William Buick has to be backed as far as I am concerned in the 7f bet365 EBF Conditions Stakes at 3.30. Boiling Point will be jolly having gone close in a G 3 over track and trip last September but I think the Godolphin colt could have more to offer this season. The son of Shamardal showed signs of ability when second in 8.5f Novice Stakes at Wolverhampton on debut in November 2023 and confirmed he was one to keep an eye on by running out a comfortable winner of a mile Chelmsford Novice Stakes a month later; I tipped him on both occasions. Dropping back in trip on this testing seven-furlongs does not concern me, could, in fact, work in his favour, and I am on again for this at 11-4.