Hi all,
Another busy day on the selection front.
Ayr
3:05 – Universal Gleam – 7/4 @ William Hill & Ladbrokes -The 4-year-old returned to action after a 228-day absence and after both a gelding and wind-operation. A quick turnaround, that run came just five days ago, but if it’s not an inconvenience he’s the one to beat here.
3:35 – Yolo Again – 11/4 @ Bet365 & BetVictor – Both the selections two wins on turf when trained in Ireland came on good or quicker ground. The filly was 4th of 12 in the 3-year-old All Weather Championship at Lingfield on Good Friday, before being predictably outclassed in Listed company at Chelmsford over 6f on her next start. Ran better than her final position of 6th suggests at Chester 14-days ago. The going would have been plenty soft enough for her and she didn’t get the best of passages on two occasion in the final furlong. Back to better ground should see he go close.
Kempton
6:25 – Merchant Of Venice – 4/1 @ Ladbrokes & Coral – A winner at Newcastle and over C&D before doing well to get as close as he did finishing 3rd of 14, beaten just a length, from stall 14 over C&D. Up 2lb for his turf debut at Ascot. He was sent of the 11/2 favourite but didn’t get much of pace to chase down the stand side and could only finish 10th of 20. I think he remains better than his Ascot run. Again, not been favoured by the draw in stall 11 but a reproduction of his third placed effort twos start back puts him right in the mix.
7:55 – Koeman – 6/1 @ Ladbrokes & Coral – A few inform horses in this 1m 2f Class 3 handicap. The likes of Lexington Empire. Big Kitten, Sleeping Lion & Harbour Breeze all need respecting. Indeed there’s 2 ½ point between the foursome in the betting. The one I like is the Mick Channon trained Koeman. The 5-year-old has won over C&D in the past but has been running mainly on turf in the past 12 months. A winner off 4lb lower at Ascot last July. He returned from a 267-day break to with an excellent third placed effort behind Baghdad at Newmarket in a Class 2 handicap 17-days ago. Drop back to 1m 3f asks a different question of the gelding but he needs to win this if he’s to get into the Duke of Edinburgh at Royal Ascot.
Cheers
John