Daryl Carter's Tips: 11/8 Bonttay to bounce back and prove well-treated

• Two Wednesday Bets

• NAP Bonttay must be well handicapped

• Don't give up on Dragon Icon yet

• Watch Coaching Carter Episode 2 Here

15:20 Ludlow - Back Bonttay @ 11/82.38 2pt

Bonttay - 11/82.38 on the Betfair Sportsbook - takes a dip in class, having unseated when still travelling well at Cheltenham in a race won by a subsequent and well-treated winner now rated ten pounds higher.

Furthermore, that race has seen the third run well against the boys at Kempton and Sandown the next twice and the fifth score at Plumpton.
Bonttay was unseated at the second last, but it was far enough out that the handicapper has left her on the same rating, making her eligible for this drop into a 0-125 contest.

Her form has worked out well to think she is well treated, including her penultimate start at Hereford, which sees the five-length third now 12 pounds higher in the handicap. The seven-year-old is a progressive mare, and there is little doubt she will end the season far higher than her current rating of 123.

The cheek-pieces that saw her to brilliant effect at Kelso at the end of last season return today, and she makes stacks of appeal as she looks to right the wrongs from last time out.

Evens or bigger is acceptable.

19:00 Kempton - Back Dragon Icon @ 15/28.50 1.5pt

The run from Dragon Icon - 15/28.50 on the Betfair Sportsbook - when I strongly fancied him at Lingfield last month was too bad to be true, and perhaps the 236-day absence and the fitting of the first-time hood are reasons to excuse that effort.

He now returns to the scene of his debut Novice win in November 2022, where he beat horses now rated 85 and 101, and given the deep visual impression he left on his first two outings on the AW, he is certainly worth another chance.

Nothing in this race is thrown in off their current ratings, but the unknown ceiling of the ability with Dragon Icon is appealing, and he gets the vote.

Connections said before Lingfield that he is a "horse we like very much" and that Lingfield "was a starting point and the run would bring him on" - information gathered after I had written him up in the column. Still, despite that, he was backed 7/18.00 into 4/15.00, and his presence in a race like the German 2,000 Guineas on just his third outing echoes the confidence the camp has in him.

Dragon Icon looks the play here, and anything bigger than 4/15.00 is acceptable from a good draw in stall four.

Read Cheltenham Festival Focus Week 14 Here.