Wednesday's Horse Racing Tips: James Boyle's Best Bets at Carlisle

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing at Carlisle, with three selections now online.

As always, you’ll find the most up-to-date odds at the best horse racing betting sites, but our tipster’s predictions are researched early in the day and those prices could soon change. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

15:30 Carlisle – Aqua Bear – 1pt @ 13/2

Somebody fancied Aqua Bear to run a big race in a valuable handicap at Goodwood a month ago, his price going from 40/1 overnight into an SP of 12/1.

Unfortunately, there was no chance of that support yielding a return as a change of tactics led to him racing keenly at the front of the field and that was never going to work out.

The run before is the one that gives a fairer representation of where he’s at, as he finished fourth behind Colori Forever in quite a good handicap and looked ready for a longer trip.

Hints from his data would also suggest he will appreciate a mile and we’re getting to see that theory tested now, in a much lower grade than what he has taken in this term over 7f.

With Clifford Lee – who has a fine record at this track – booked to ride, 13/2 about Aqua Bear makes plenty of appeal to me and he should be winning races before long.

16:02 Carlisle – Figjam – 1pt @ 28/1

Figjam may need to wait until easier ground comes out to play before we see her take a proper step forward but there’s a big price on offer today, which I can’t turn down.

Getting back to race in her own age group will aid her cause and she wasn’t disgraced at this trip and level when sixth at Musselburgh a couple of weeks ago, four-lengths behind Golden Palace.

I’m not totally convinced that Musselburgh’s track plays to her strengths and there was more promise on her previous start when running on into fourth behind Rosy Affair over 6f at Haydock.

Everything was happening too quickly on that occasion, enhancing the feeling that she’s not a sprinter unless the ground is bad, but she was the third quickest through the final furlong.

Nothing in this field would strike much fear into you, even with Haggas having the market leader, and Figjam could threaten them if she gets into a nice rhythm on this surface.

16:35 Carlisle – Leadenhall – 1pt @ 3/1

Leadenhall has spent the whole of his handicapping career rated between 72 and 80, and has found close to his best level again in the last month having fallen to the lower end of that.

Two of his last three outings have yielded wins, both over the extended mile at Nottingham, and between those runs was a solid effort behind Point Of Contact at York.

Four days ago, he landed a handicap for apprentice riders under Jake Dickson and pulled clear of the opposition with a last time out maiden winner who looks ahead of his mark.

The time of the race wouldn’t elicit much excitement but it was slowly run and that’s not really how Leadenhall wants things to pan out, so I’m inclined to take a very positive view of it.

We should see him sitting off a proper tempo this time around and he gets to run without a penalty, plus the rider can claim his full allowance now that he’s up against fully-fledged jockeys.

I think it should all align to see him in with a massive chance of adding a third win in almost as many weeks. 3/1 is generally available and that seems like a fair price to me.