A few days of letting them run, as cards just looked horrendously tricky and the weather leading to no end of guessable ground. Nicky Henderson even quite rightly taking to media to justify not running horses, tells you how bad it has been. On the All Weather it has been really low grade stuff, which is just proving too unpredictable this time of year.
Today is decent, with plenty I’ve marked for a watching brief and one I really quite fancy. The Kempton card in particular looks a cracking card, though more from a spectator point of view, rather than betting talk. There will for sure be some major pointers for the coming months on this card though, with some really competitive races.
Something @ 7/1
Something @ 7/12pt Win | Kempton 15:45
T: Stuart Williams
J: Harry Vigors
The one and only bet, for now at least, goes in the 1m3f Class 5 Handicap at Kempton, where I really fancy Stuart Williams’ runner Something, under the very worthwhile 7lb claim of Harry Vigors.
This Golden Horn gelding has won three of his nineteen starts, but is two from ten on the All Weather. All three wins have come over 1m4f, so stamina is not in the question here, despite the racecards questioning whether he will stay.
The only real question around him is how he will handle the track, with this being his first venture to Kempton. Golden Horn progeny handle Kempton perfectly fine and he is out of a Shamardal mare, which is a good pointer towards Kempton’s AW surface as they operate here over middle distances (1m2f-1m6f) at a strike of 17% from some 120-odd runners – Solid.
More interestingly, Something followed a very similar path last year when returning from a break, which suggests we could see vast improvement on his last run;
In May last year he reappeared on the back of a 130-day break off a mark of 77, running 6th of 11 and beaten 12¾ lengths. He came back out three weeks later off of 75 and ran 1st of 10 by 2¼ lengths.
This time round, he made his reappearance run after a 147-day break off of 76, running 5th of 6 and beaten 6½ lengths. He goes today off a mark of 74, plus the 7lb claim to be taken off.
This is his third run for Stuart Williams, an extremely shrewd hand with his horses, especially so on the All Weather, and having aquired him from Jedd O’Keefe, I’d be amazed if Williams can’t fetch him well beyond the level O’Keefe had him running at.
Having won off of 70 on the AW and running close 2nds twice off of 76 and 77, his current mark plus the claim has to mark him as an extremely well-handicapped horse.
Best of luck with your punting today,
