Newmarket Horse Racing Tips for Thursday

The three-day Craven meeting at Newmarket draws to a close on Thursday and bet365 sponsor the big one which comes up at 15:35.

Racing Post tipster Robbie Wilders is here to provide us with his three tips from Thursday's card.

Thursday’s Newmarket Horse Racing Betting Tips and Odds

13:50 – Mashadi @ 16/1
15:00 – Washington Heights @ 25/1
15:35 – Eben Shaddad @ 7/2

13:50 – Mashadi @ 16/1

Punters can tie themselves in knots trying to decipher draw biases in sprint handicaps, but it looks as if the stands’ side may be the place to be in this one as there is a decent concentration of early pace there.

That looks a real plus for Mashadi in stall 15 for Kevin Philippart de Foy, who is fitting blinkers to his sprinter and is an encouraging 2-5 over the past year when applying them to his runners for the first time. 

Mashadi has been slightly unfortunate to finish runner-up on six of his seven career starts, but you couldn’t knock his consistency and he arrives here with race fitness proven, having raced on the all-weather twice in recent times. He stays seven furlongs and that is no negative in six-furlong sprints here. 

15:00 – Washington Heights @ 25/1

There is always room for new blood in the sprinting ranks and Washington Heights may be one who graduates out of handicaps this season. He makes plenty of appeal in the Group 3 Abernant Stakes. 

Washington Heights was a regular feature in many of the top three-year-old handicaps last season and largely acquitted himself creditably.  

He progressed to run out a wide-margin winner of a Swedish Listed race on his final start at three and will be interesting if picking up where he left off, particularly as his trainer has captured four of the past 10 runnings of the Abernant.

Crucially, this improving sprinter could be at a slight tactical advantage as he is a prominent racer in a contest surprisingly not overly well furnished with such types. That is dangerous on a track which can often favour front-runners. 

15:35 – Eben Shaddad @ 7/2

The Craven market looks interesting. Three horses dominate the early betting and the one to focus on is Eben Shaddad, with Charlie Appleby’s Native Approach having much more to find than the prices imply on his first turf run, while the Andre Fabre-trained Alcantor may be at his best on softer ground.

Eben Shaddad kept good company last campaign. After landing his maiden impressively on Newmarket’s July course, he switched to the Rowley Mile and enhanced his form when third to the smart Alyanaabi in the Tattersalls Stakes.

He built on that by running the smart winner even closer when the pair were best of the rest behind 2,000 Guineas favourite City Of Troy in the Dewhurst, and the dam’s side of Eben Shaddad’s pedigree in particular gives you every hope he will be fine over this extra furlong.

Evidently the selection has nothing to prove at the course and simply must go close. 

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.