IT’S NO STALL ORDER FOR THE KING’S STEED
THERE are two mile contests at Brighton today, but the first is a nine-runner maiden and the bias is reduced by both field size and spread of ability.
So the race to concentrate on is the Sky Sports Racing HD Virgin 535 Handicap, in which outsider THE KING’S STEED (5:40 Brighton - Nap) is wellberthed in stall nine to make all.
Shaun Lycett’s (pictured) gelding is returning from almost a year off the track and will be ignored by most punters for that reason, but he’s the most likely of these on historic form to make the running. Also, he has a good strike-rate on soft ground at 7f/1m with form figures under similar conditions over the past five years of 141011.
The King’s Steed won off marks of 48 and 51 last May with the first of those wins, on soft ground at Nottingham, coming by eight-and-a-half lengths having made all the running.
Generous
He has not raced on easy ground since following up at Hamilton and has fallen back to the former mark again, which looks generous given how dominant he was at Nottingham. The question is his absence, but this looks too good an opportunity to have him half-baked.
Hector Loza and Danny Bleu can lead, but they are drawn badly in the inside stalls for such a tactic.
There is a big field for the Best Ticket
Prices Online At leicester-racecourse.co.uk Handicap, but the claims of OASIS GIFT (4:20 Leicester) are compelling.
The unexposed three-yearold comes from an excellent sprinting family with his dam being a useful sprinter who won over C&D on quick ground.
His granddam was the demoted Nunthorpe winner Blue Siren and the family is chock-full of sprinting winners.