4:02 Leicester Tips

In good form when winning at Kelso and only beaten 5 lengths when 4th to a horse that's gone close next time out. Should handle heavy ground based on the last run, and the conditional jockey is riding well with a string of several placed efforts recently.

Distance winner Queen of Steel was third last time out and races off a 2 lb lower mark today. She has won at this level before and is a decent price at 7/1.

Although she has yet to win over hurdles, the Clive Boultbee-Brooks-trained Kantagua Du Large won a four-year-old chase in France wearing cheekpieces back in 2024. She drops in grade after a fairly encouraging seasonal debut at Wincanton last month and could get off the mark over timber here.

She ran well in the 2023/24 seasons, preferring soft ground with two wins and four placed efforts. She struggled last year with a best finish of sixth, but her mark has dropped significantly because of it, and she is now 15 lbs lower than her opening handicap mark.

Pearl Smoke has not been great in the five runs so far but in July was 3/4 in a C4 at 2m3f and comes into this handicap debut on a decent opening mark with a drop to C5 and steps up to 2m4 and handy Nathan has a 3 lbs claim EW