JAB TO LAND KNOCKOUT BLOW

Jabbaar should be up to the challenge in the Betway Live Casino Handicap at Southwell tomorrow.

The five-year-old chestnut went close over this course and distance earlier in the month on what was his first spin on the Fibresand circuit in Nottinghamshire.

Trainer Iain Jardine will therefore be pretty miffed if Jabbaar does not at least replicate that display off the same handicap mark of 75.

Jabbaar has had quite a nomadic existence of a horse his age, yet Jardine looks to have got a nice enough tune out of him in seven starts for the Carrutherstown handler.

The gelded son of Medicean won well over a mile and a half at Catterick in the autumn and was only three-quarters of a length from further top honours at Southwell on January 9.

Jabbaar finished third, but the manner in which he finished off his race suggests he is coming to hand very nicely for this assignment. It is also reassuring to see Phil Makin back in the saddle.

Pearl Acclaim probably holds the key to the Betway Handicap.

David Griffiths’ inmate is now eight years old, but he is still pretty sharp on his day – as evidenced by a tight defeat of stablemate Brother Tiger in a similar sort of sprint at this track a week and a half ago.

Pearl Acclaim was seemingly on top of proceedings that day, so, despite his advancing years, it is not beyond the realms of probability to suggest he might still be progressing.

The son of Acclamation loves it at Southwell – he has won three times at the track in two months – so it would be foolish to dismiss his claims of a double

Hakam is likely to cut loose in a six-furlong handicap beneath the lights at Chelmsford.