Horse Racing Tips: Rhys Williams has a 16/1 NAP at Worcester

Good chance on his best form

Worcester 15:10: Monte Igueldo 1pt win 16/1

This maiden hurdle is a race full of 'ifs' with jumping doubts over Winterwatch and Donnie Azoff, jumping and stamina doubts over King Ottokar and a question of if the wind op will have a positive impact on Huflower and if he will hang right under pressure or not.

Given those doubts, I've stayed away from the head of the market and sided with a horse who has questions to answer but will be competitive if bouncing back to his best.

Monte Igueldo started his career in France and showed a good level of ability before joined Oliver Greenall. He showed some promise on his first start for Greenall in a stronger race than this at Wetherby when staying in contention until being left behind approaching 2 out, with some sloppy jumping not helping his cause.

He ran fairly well next time at Ayr when stepped up in trip where he looked to not quite see out the trip having made good headway into third entering the home straight before fading late on.

He was dropped back in trip to 2m½f on his first start of this year at Bangor and was ridden much handier in behind the leaders. Pushed along entering the home straight, he made headway to join Jungle Jack jumping 2 out but Monte Igueldo stumbled on landing and the tack shifted causing Craig Nichol to become briefly unbalanced. His chance had gone but he kept on well to finish second.

Things haven't gone so well for Monte Igueldo since, being pulled up on two occasions with an irregular heartbeat and finishing well beaten on handicap debut at Sedgefield which was a completely unsuitable track for him.

It's clearly a concern that he's had an irregular heartbeat on two occasions but I'm hoping that they have managed to fix the cause of that problem in the 144 days since his last run as the quality he showed in his first three runs last season is arguably as good as anything else in this field has shown.

It might be that it is once again an issue and his jumping wasn't great at times last season but in a race of this nature I think he's overpriced given the ability he's shown and any 12/1 or bigger appeals.