In-running / Neil Munro / 09 September 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet View Market

As conditions change we need to find a diverse range of horses to trade on in-running. Betting.Betfair's man for all seasons Neil Munro introduces four intriguing prospects.

"Orientalist has put together three wins which have shown his willingness in a finish and caught out a few layers in-running."

It suddenly feels very autumnal, rain is in the air, the nights are closing in and we are starting to hear from all the major Jumps stables in advance of the National Hunt season. Yes, I know we have had summer jumping but that doesn't count right?!

One of the great parts of looking for horses to trade on in-running is that they can be found in every area of racing and I hope today to have a broad spectrum of horses to follow.

Orientalist: Eve Johnson Houghton deserves great credit for her handling of the son of Haafhd, Orientalist. The two -year-old gelding has run eight times in his career, and won four of those starts. And the trainer has a battler on her hands who doesn't like to lose and puts it all in at the business end. On debut, he came from quite far off the pace over five furlongs at Nottingham to win cosily. He put in a couple of decent efforts over six furlongs but stepping up to seven furlongs has been the making of him. He's put together three wins which have shown his willingness in a finish and caught out a few layers in-running. He has traded at [240.00], [4.2], [48.0] and [8.2] in the run during his victories, all higher than his Betfair Starting Price, and two considerably higher. Over seven furlongs or a mile I'll back him, even though he will be stepping up in class, splitting my stakes between pre-race and in-running.

Morestead: At five-years old, he's has had 39 starts with just three victories. Although not the worse ratio, it still indicates that he doesn't win as often as he should. He likes to bowl along uncontested at the front but when taken on he sulks. He jumps quite low so he does tend to brush fences and make the odd mistake, which leads to his finishing far down the field. But because he does like to race with the pace he's got a large number of low trades in defeat alongside the three wins. I would back him pre-race, then put up a keep bet laying him at around one quarter the matched backing price whth further offers at lower odds to green up your book. I would also be tempted to lower my initial offer once the race had gone in-running if he was getting an easy lead.

Den's Gift: Clive Cox has a few horses who enjoy prominent tactics, and the six-year-old Den's Gift definitely fits that bill. He has had 34 career starts, 18 on the Turf and 16 on the All Weather which leads me straight into how we trade on this front runner. He just isn't as good on grass as he is on an artificial surface, with all four career wins coming on the polytrack surfaces at Lingfield and Kempton. Overall he has 19 trades at [4.0] or under in-running before going on to be defeated, with seven of those at odds-on. So keep it simple. On turf, just attempt to lay him in the run and on the All Weather back him pre race and lay out your stake only, especially if he's dropped a couple more pounds in the handicap.

Snoqualmie Star: The three-year-old filly has had nine starts and already picked up a couple of victories so it may be harsh to cramp her but I think she has looked a hard ride in a finish. This may be due to her rise from a mark of 66 to 82 for those two wins and a decent placed effort but she still is going close. Snoqualmie Star has gone down by a short head and a nose in the last two defeats, trading at [1.26] and [1.11] in the run, but this was as much down to the horse as the weight she's been carrying. Take her on at short odds in the run until we see a difference in her in a finish.

Tags: horseracing betting, In-running betting, Neil Munro, Orientalist