4:38 Fakenham Tips

Esperti (15:15), a horse in the 'form of his life', is looking for a hat-trick under Sean Bowen. Despite the weight rise, his course-and-distance dominance makes him the one to beat.

Has come back from a winter break in good form, winning on the comeback before a strong 2nd to Havaila at Plumpton from this mark, with that horse winning the Bet365 last week from 10 lbs higher to frank form. Won this race last year.

Wicked Thoughts had Always Busy just over 3l behind him when winning at Taunton a month ago. (He gives that rival 2 lb today.) However, that was the best run over fences so far from the 7-yo, and he could have even more to offer today with the quick ground and longer trip looking sure to be to his liking. He has run well at left-handed sharp tracks before, so should not be inconvenienced by this course. A reproduction of his last run will make him hard to beat today.

Picked up 2 wins towards the back of 2025 and took his first win of 2026 in a Class 4 handicap in February (4 outings back) and it looks like he is holding his form having finished runner up in 2 of 3 subsequent outings He is only 2lbs higher than his last win and has his regular 7lbs claimer in the saddle, so with his yard having sent out 1 winner and 2 runner up finishers from their 3 runners in the last 14 days, we can hopefully see another competitive effort despite stepping up in grade today

Northern Poet is an 11-year-old trained by Nick Gifford and ridden by James Davies (who has won on Northern Poet five times). He ran a decent race last month, finishing a close 4th at Plumpton. Now he races back at the distance he last won at. That win was off a mark of 117 at Warwick. races here 2 lb lower. Each way.