GbHorseTips

A full brother to the French-trained Firth Of Fifth who, while 0-14 in her career, did place twice over the extended nine-furlong trip, hitting a peak RPR of 81 over that distance. Two runs over seven furlongs were described as “slowly away, ran green” and “dwelt, midfield, outpaced.” One over six furlongs was described as “slowly away, in rear, outpaced, never near.” The step up to a mile here should suit, and off a mark of 61 he should improve at some point. This isn’t a strong race for him to make his handicap debut. He’s had the knackered treatment since last seen and is in a first-time hood. The booking of Shoemark is a good one, as he is 3-14 for the yard, and the horse has seen slight support through the morning. Bet at anything 13/2+

35 lengths behind Konfusion in November but now gets a weight swing of 22 lb with that rival. It’s fair to see he just looks laid out for this race once more, whereas he was just making up the numbers earlier in the season. A dual winner of this contest off marks of 136 and 139, he’s going for the hat-trick off 140 here, having followed a similar path to last year. Form figures of 7P preceded last year’s victory and this year it’s 6P, last seen in December ??" same as the year previous. Gets my money at anything 11/2+.

In my tracker as ‘Class 5’, in which he is a previous ten-time winner, and although his form has dropped slightly below the good thing he used to be at that grade, he is one for two in Class 6s, which he gets here. Form figures of 81522 and 115 days off track shouldn’t be an issue. He ran well last time out, putting in a very similar sort of performance to the winner, who followed up with three Class 5 wins in his next seven races. Could be a lack of pace, with only Harbour Vision guaranteed to go forward, but Dayman and Court of Session can lead, so hopefully they force a pace. He looks a nice each-way here.

Plenty of these are returning from breaks, and the ones that aren’t don’t seem to have much in hand. A tentative play on Secret Handsheikh, who has an eye-catching booking of Billy the Kid. He already had a season opener when he was beaten by some distance but has kindly been dropped 2 lb for that, down to 60, which he won off in August over the extended 5f here. He does usually come on for his reappearance run. Form figures of 1-2-4-6-1-8-9 on his second run from a break, with the 8 and 9 being followed by third and second-place finishes respectively, say he might just be a touch overpriced here. It’s a wide-open race. Bet at 15/2+

There’s definitely an argument for keeping him over further after his run last time out, where he ran the last furlong a quarter of a second faster than anything else over the seven-furlong distance. There should be plenty of pace on here back over six furlongs to suit him. Third in this race last year off a mark of 110, he’s 5 lb lower here, and I fancy him to go well now in better form than his reappearance when three-quarters of a length behind Ferrous. I’d make Marshman a 9/2 shot here.

As hit as he is miss, his best three runs have all come after a break (form figures of 2-3-4-1 for this yard when spending 50+ days off track), and that bodes well after 68 days off. A winner here off 57 in January, he’s only going off 59 here. The booking of Billy Loughnane, who’s 4-8 for the yard, speaks volumes.