P-P7. Those are the last three runs of GOLLY GOSH (4:00 Stratford, 9/4). He was pulled up twice and then finished seventh, and we are with him anyway.
The race explains a lot of it. Only four go to post for this staying handicap over two miles three on fast ground. In a field that small you are not asking a horse to beat a crowd. You are asking which of the four has the best piece of form to stand on, and his comes from Hereford on 11 February. He finished three parts of a length in front of a horse that has won since. It is not a flashy line, but it is a real one, and a four-runner race does not ask for much more than that. Tom Ellis brings him back from 138 days off, and that is the genuine question. If he comes back as the horse he was at Hereford, three opponents is a short list.
Our one headline selection yesterday finished out of the places.
Kempton
ARARAT (7:15 Kempton, 9/2) has finished sixth three times running, and he is the Kempton horse we want most. A finishing position is only part of the picture. Behind those sixths his times have been getting sharply quicker, from a low starting point, and that is how a horse on a mark of 59 ends up well treated in a Class 6 while nobody is looking. He is not quick yet. He is heading in the right direction, which is a different thing and the more useful one at 9/2. Thirteen run over seven furlongs. He is fit from a run 12 days ago and he has run over the trip and on this going before. Jack Mitchell rides from stall 1 for Rachel Cook and John Bridger.
MREMBO (8:15 Kempton, 7/1) is the biggest price we are with all day, and her case rests on where she is running more than how she has been running. Her last win came five starts back and today’s race is below that grade. She was second last time, 52 days ago, and stall 6 is a good draw over a mile and a half here. Her recent figures have slipped, and that is the knock on her. The drop in grade is why 7/1 is too big.
Of the three at Kempton, FAHIDI (5:45 Kempton, 5/1) has the least to go on. He was third and fourth in two of his last three for Andrew Balding, he has not run for 135 days, and the break is the question. What tips it is James Doyle, who rides Kempton better than his overall record suggests, in a nine-runner Class 5 over just short of a mile and three furlongs.
Pontefract and Yarmouth
At 13/2 a last-time-out winner usually comes with a catch, and with TURNSTILE (2:05 Pontefract, 13/2) the catch is the two runs before that win. He was seventh and then fifth before he got his head in front. The form around his recent runs has held up well, though. Rivals he finished close to have gone on and won since, so his record is better than the placings make it look. Tim Easterby brings him back 17 days after the win and drops him below the grade he won in, which is the right order of things for a horse coming off a victory. Stall 6 is a good draw over six furlongs here, and he has run over the trip and on good ground before. Duran Fentiman rides.
Over seven furlongs at Yarmouth stall 6 is where you want to be drawn, and that is where CHAISE LONGUE (3:00 Yarmouth, 10/3) starts. She knows the place. Eighteen days ago she was second here, and a horse she finished just under a length in front of that day has won since. That winner only won a Class 6, so the line backs the run up rather than making it. Before that she was seventh and fifth, so the second was a clear step forward, and Ed Dunlop brings her straight back to the same track with Robert Havlin riding.
Wolverhampton
Four of ours run at Wolverhampton tonight, and FAEBERON (7:00 Wolverhampton, 3/1) has the best single piece of form of the lot. At Ayr on 8 August he finished half a length in front of a horse that has since gone on and won a Class 4. Today he runs in a Class 5. That line alone would get us involved, and the rest of his profile fills in around it. He has gone well over course and distance, his record suits the standard going, and he has been in the first four in four of his last five, winning three starts back. He has been off 35 days since finishing fourth. The Crisfords’ runner has stall 1 over the extended mile and a furlong, and Callum Shepherd rides.
Second, third, third. APEX STAR (6:30 Wolverhampton, 6/4) has not won in six, but he keeps turning up, and his times behind those placings have been climbing quickly from a low base. On a mark of 57 in a Class 6 sprint, that is the trend that matters. He runs 20 days after his second, from stall 3, which is a good draw over this six furlongs. William Knight trains and Marco Ghiani rides.
Billy Loughnane has two of our rides here. The first is DREAMS GALORE (5:00 Wolverhampton, 5/2) over the minimum trip. She won two starts back and three starts back, then ran third last time. Five furlongs round here is over in a flash and where you start counts for a lot, so stall 3 matters. Loughnane rides this track better than his wider record suggests. Ollie Sangster has given her 43 days off, and that is the one thing to weigh.
He is back for the last race on our list, on POWDER MONKEY (8:30 Wolverhampton, 9/4). This one has won his last two and has gone well over course and distance, and his record on standard going suits. His speed figures have been heading the wrong way, which is the one mark against him in a twelve-runner Class 4 over seven furlongs from stall 1. George Boughey’s horse is going for three in a row at half past eight.