Jake Price's Thursday Horse Racing Tips at Market Rasen

SHABALKO D'HERM 1pt Win @ 9/4

Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies have been locked in over the past few weeks, recording 8 winners from 15 runners for a 53% strike rate. There is certainly no worries surrounding the fitness of their yard, and another Horse who can surely benefit from that is SHABALKO D’HERM, who makes his Chase debut.

This point-to-point winner is a bit of a tearaway, as highlighted by his Hurdles debut success at Uttoxeter last October where he was smashed into evens favourite and bolted up by 12 lengths - not seeing another rival out in front under Sam Twiston-Davies. When he went to Bangor in November the same tactics were applied once more, however on this occasion his lead was eroded by the useful Count Of Vendome (123).

Quite extraordinarily after that rival made a mistake at the last this 6yo rallied again to go on and score however, which was some performance whilst also giving away a 7lbs penalty to the runner up. The form of the race has worked out quite nicely too, with the 4 lengths third Filibustering now rated 129 having won three times since, the fourth Mister Ursus is rated 128 having won twice since, and the fifth Brookside La won easily off a mark of 110 at Worcester on Wednesday.

A Horse like SHABALKO D’HERM is clearly very hard on himself due to his aggressive running style, so it was no surprise to see his form start to drop off after two starts. He was last of five in a Listed Novice Hurdle at Sandown, and he was well beaten behind Baron Noir at Kempton when attempting to give away a double penalty. After a break of 92 days he rounded out his campaign at Ffos Las in April when sent off an unfancied 20/1 shot, but ultimately his season had already run its course, and I can forgive the effort.

Clearly then the time to catch this Horse is early in the season, where he can use his fitness and freshness to take horses out of their comfort zone. Providing he jumps fences well then he could be a really fun ride for Sam Twiston-Davies from the front, which is a track position you'd imagine he will be allowed to take up. When the assessor first assigned him a Handicap mark it was 127, but having ran so poorly in the New Year he is now down to a rating of 120, which looks very workable now tackling this new sphere.