Best Bets: Monday 28 December

OLIVE BRANCH (Trap 1) – 16:43 Sheffield

The first of two selections at Sheffield comes in this A7 contest, with OLIVE BRANCH taken to double her career tally. Lightly raced for an October 18 bitch, this is Olive Branch’s first run back post-season so she may not be cherry ripe fitness-wise, but even so, she may well get away with it in this ordinary contest give she possesses the scope to rate quite a bit higher.

HEAD ITON SHARPY (Trap 5) – 17:03 Sheffield

Twenty minutes later arrives bet number two, with HEAD ITON SHARPY expected to make the most of the downgrade to A8 company. The selection has struggled to make an impact in a trio of A7 contests of late but will surely turn handy if not in front against this opposition, and while there are a couple of unknown quantities in Traps 1 and 3, Head Iton Sharpy ought to be tough to contain.

BALLINAKILL JADE (Trap 1) – 20:06 Nottingham

BALLINAKILL JADE is in the form of her life currently, overcoming crowding to taste victory on her last two outings, latterly in A2 class to complete the hat-trick. She escapes a rise in class and the presence of a couple of pacey sorts on her outside may actually help her as she can slot in behind before hopefully asserting late on.