Thursday's free feature, the Instant Expert racecard tab is one of Geegeez readers' most popular tools because it has the unique ability to condense the entire form profile of every runner in the race into a single, easily digestible, view covering the form in terms of wins (or places), runs, and win (or place) percentage for each of going, class, course, distance, and field size.
It also compares today’s official rating with the horse’s last winning official rating. The display is colour coded: green for a higher percentage rate, amber for a middling percentage, and red for a low percentage. Horses with no form under a certain condition have grey figures.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Where a horse has no UK/Irish form – i.e. it is having its first run in Britain or Ireland under Rules – it will not show up on Instant Expert at all.
We make this feature freely available to ALL readers EVERY Thursday for ALL races, including, naturally, our selection of 'free' races as follows...
- 2.40 Haydock
- 4.25 Bellewstown
- 5.10 Tipperary
- 5.40 Tipperary
- 5.50 Kempton
- 6.45 Newbury
None of those make much appeal to me if truth be told, so I'm going off-piste with a look at the highest-rated handicap of the day in the UK, the 7.35 Kempton, an 11-runner, Class 3, 4yo+ A/W handicap over a right-handed 1m4f on standard to slow tapeta...
My initial thoughts were that this might well be a two-horse between Cracksking and The Goat at fairly short prices, leaving the way open for an E/W bet or two, but let's check...
Only Cracksking won last time out and this son of Frankel is 2 from 4 (3211) on the All-Weather. He beat the re-opposing The Goat by a neck in that race (here over course and distance), whilst Simply Sondheim and Ludos Landing were also runners-up on their last outings.
Way of Life has made the frame in 11 of his last 14, but has failed to win any of his last 22 races, whilst Global Heat, There's The Door and Naval Commander are on losing streaks of 14, 7 and 8 races respectively.
There's The Door does have the benefit of a drop in class here, though, as do Simply Sondheim and Graignes, but the bottom four in the weights, Way of Life, Naval Commander, Met Office and Ludos Landing all step up in class, so it's hard to envisage either of Way of Life or Naval Commander getting back to winning ways here.
Gooloogong runs in a handicap for just the second time (last of eight over course and distance behind Cracksking & The Goat as above LTO four weeks ago), whilst bothNaval Commander and Simply Sondheim make yard debuts on their return from lengthy layoffs of 364 days and 292 days respectively. Both Met Office (232d) and Graignes (241d) might also be in need of the run, but the other seven runners here have raced in the last 8-40 days.
All bar There's The Door have had at least one run here at Kempton, but only Simply Sondheim, Cracksking, Graignes and Naval Commander have won here with all bar Naval Commander and Ludos Landing having tackled today's trip. Cracksking, The Goat, Way of Life and Met Office have all won over 1m4f, but only Cracksking has won at track and trip, when triumphant here four weeks ago.
Based on this preview, it's no surprise that Cracksking is the standout in terms of wins on our free daily feature Instant Expert...
...with Simply Sondheim and Graignes also having gone well, but they are both returning from long breaks. From a place perspective, my shortlist would have to be Simply Sondheim, Cracksking, The Goat, Graignes and Way of Life and these runners occupy stalls 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7, so I'm hoping that if there's a draw bias to take advantage of, that it benefits those drawn lowest...
...and that does appear to be the case, albeit marginally. I suspect the pace might well tell us a bit more about who might challenge here. I've got it in my head that even though the trip is a mile and a half that those setting the pace or keeping up with it have fared the best, but as ever, its always best to check the data...
Well, I'm sort of right, I suppose. the advantage seems more pronounced from a place perspective, of course, but one this is apparent : you don't want to dwell and be left behind here. So, I suppose that if one or more of my low-drawn Instant Expert shortlist are runners who like to get on with things, we might have ourselves a live E/W chance at worst, so let's look at their last few races...
...with four of my shortlisted quintet filling the first five berths on the pace chart, making the resultant pace/draw heat map look like this...
Summary
Based on our free feature of the day, Instant Expert and the pace/draw data, I'm inclined to stick with Simply Sondheim, Cracksking, The Goat, Graignes and Way of Life as the five runners to choose from and with Simply Sondheim and Graignes likely to need a run after a lengthy lay-off, I'm left with the two that I though would battle it out for the win, Cracksking and The Goat plus perennial placer but rare winner Way of Life and I'll take them in that order.
The one I did like earlier but doesn't seem to tick any boxes is bottom weight Ludo's Landing. He's in great form, receives weight all round and could well spring a surprise. The Wednesday 5.30pm market looked like this...
...so there could be an E/W bet or two in the offing, if you're that way inclined.
Other Recent Posts by This Author:
- Tix Picks, Saturday 04/01/25
- Tix Picks, Friday 03/01/25
- Tix Picks, Thursday 02/01/25
- Tix Picks, Tuesday 31/12/24
- Tix Picks, Monday 30/12/24
