Newbury top racing tip: Nextdoortoalice looking to build on recent form

The early favourites are My Girl Katie, who is making her handicap debut and has only ever raced with cut in the ground, while Flying Nun has only ever won in Class 5 company and is three pounds above her top winning mark.

The potential value elsewhere brings in Nextdoortoalice, whose latest run can easily be excused because she made a bad mistake three out and had to be pulled-up.

Prior to that, she made her seasonal debut in a much higher-graded Class 2 handicap at Wincanton, where she finished third of five on good-firm ground, beaten just 3.75 lengths behind a very useful pair of handicappers.

The winner, Wynne House, was landing her second Class 2 handicap and is now rated 125, while the runner-up, Sabrina, won a novices' hurdle by 16 lengths next time out.

The Wincanton handicap was over 21.4 furlongs and, having been temporarily outpaced approaching the home straight, she rallied strongly in the straight in the manner of a mare who could do with a little further.

Her early hurdling career was extremely promising as she won a Class 3 novices' hurdle by 10 lengths, and she followed that by going very close in a 15-runner novices' event, despite conceding a seven-pound penalty.

Following a 217-day break, she began this season with that fine effort in Class 2 company at Wincanton, so she looks a good bet against Sunday's Class 4 opposition, especially if the extra distance goes in her favour as anticipated.

She has already shown that this sort of ground is fine for her, which isn't the case with the majority of her rivals, while her trainer, Alex Hales, has a far better record at this venue than any of the other handlers with a 29% strike rate over the last five seasons, compared to nothing better than 11% achieved by the next-best yard.

Of the other mares in the race, Copperfasten looks a useful contender under these conditions.

Very lightly-raced in this sphere after only four runs over hurdles, she easily won a maiden over 22 furlongs of good ground at Stratford, before placing in a 23-furlong novices' event at Exeter next time.

Returning to action following a wind operation, she looks on a potentially decent mark based on her maiden form, although she did finish a lot further behind Sabrina at Exeter than Nextdoortoalice did at Wincanton.