Friday's Horse Racing Tips: James Boyle's Best Bets At York

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

13:45 York – Moon Beginnings – 1pt @ 16/1

The market has already figured out that Moon Beginnings may be an interesting runner now back to 7f but whether it has quite figured it out enough at the current 16/1, I’m not so sure.

Things haven’t gone to plan for him this season as he had a terrible racing position when returning from a few months off at Wolverhampton in a 0-95, then stepped up in distance at Nottingham on ground with an ease in it and had a total change of tactics, leading the field along.

It didn’t work out, plus he lost a shoe going down to the start, and I’m not sure he wants anything more than an end-to-end test at a mile. This is a 7f contest, of course, but they’re likely to go hard throughout and with a long straight to give him some time to hit his stride, he may be fine.

A further 3lb ease in the ratings puts him a half-stone below what the handicapper assessed him at following his two novice runs, which included a Chester win over this trip. In second that day was Zarathos, favourite for this, and hopefully we might see the trick being repeated.

14:55 York – Per Contra – 1pt @ 20/1

Per Contra may not have the raw class of a few of these but he carries less weight than the majority who would worry me and it mightn’t take much to see him as a big player.

There’s nothing too special about his runs this season, the first coming at Doncaster on Lincoln weekend. He was easy to back after almost six months away, got held up in rear and never threatened involvement, eventually coming home ninth under tender handling.

He was out the back again at Musselburgh a couple of weeks later, not exactly the place you want to be on that track, and found the drop in trip an issue. I thought he shaped up nicely enough all the same, finishing on the heels of some decent horses, and it didn’t get to the bottom of him.

Going up in trip and returning to a big field at York will help. His first two runs here last season were encouraging, the C&D effort seeing him get within a neck of landing a £100,000 handicap. He got into a battle too early that day, something I’d imagine is unlikely to happen this time.

Whether he’s in the same form is the impossible part to know but he has had a month to improve at home and we’re getting a good price to find out where he’s standing in relation to this opposition. I fancy a big run if the gallop is strong enough to pull the closers into it.

15:30 York – Lady Blanche – 1pt @ 8/1

Lady Blanche is a bigger price than she should be, possibly due to David Egan riding Lover Girl instead. The latter may be more suited to tackling the minimum trip at York but I don’t think it’s any harm to have an excess of stamina reserves in these early season juvenile races.

Karl Burke’s filly is more of a 6f runner in the longer term but she did show bright speed before powering clear over the extended 5f trip at Bath, scoring by more than five-lengths.

The runner-up disappointed with his finishing effort, no doubting that, but burned himself out as a result of trying to stay with Lady Blanche when she was piling on the pressure early.

Replicating that at this quicker track will not be simple and may not be the approach taken, especially from stall eight, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her grind these into submission. That may be wishful thinking on my part but 8/1 makes it worthwhile. She’s a few points too big.