Monday’s horse racing NAP: Your best bets for today’s racing at Windsor and Leicester from Callum Jamieson

WET looks to be the order of the day on Monday and it could be worth holding off on your bets till you have a better idea on conditions.

I’ll be braving the elements at Windsor and will be keeping my powder dry until close to the off with a wild forecast in the offing.

That said, I do fancy a couple if the weather isn’t apocalyptic, starting with a Clive Cox horse at Leicester.

JUST THE MAN (Leicester, 4.00, NAP) should be just the ticket on only his second handicap start.

He went straight into the tracker when running at Newbury and despite being well held in third on his handicap bow, a mark of 80 still looks overly generous.

He’s looked a bit slow when push has come to shove in his most recent starts, and now upped in trip and given predicted conditions, this race should be better suited.

Cox and resident jockey Adam Kirby have a strong team heading up the M40 and it could be a clue in itself that Kirby heads to Leicester and not Windsor where Cox also runs a handful of horses.

This doesn’t look the strongest heat – the Roger Charlton horse being the obvious threat – and represents a great opportunity to get his career on the right road.

Attention then switches back to the local and in the opener at Windsor JAMES WATT (Windsor, 5.45) should really end his dismal record in handicaps dropped into this Class 4.

The drop to five is interesting and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cameron Noble try and make all up the rail.

Trainer Michael Bell is 2-6 this summer at Windsor and his three-year-old has caught the eye in better races.

The blinkers didn’t work last time out. He was lit up far too early and ran out of juice a good way from home – I’m happy to whack a line through that run.

Prior to that he ran a big race when third over Guineas weekend. A return to that form and he’ll be mighty hard to beat in this 0-85 with the talented Noble claiming 3lbs.

I also fancy ICE AGE (Windsor, 7.15) but expect that race to really cut up if the forecast of Noah’s Arc arriving at Windsor is correct.

Eve Johnson Houghton has won four times here and the drop down to five isn’t much of a concern.

A repeat of his recent Ripon run would likely be enough to win this, with nothing coming into this with form to write home about and a good few likely to hate the ground.

I’ll leave this close to the off though. He was the overnight favourite and unlikely to be much of a price once a couple pull out when, not if, the rain arrives at Royal Windsor.