Take Silchester at Southwell

Silchester made a big impression on his racecourse introduction at Southwell a couple of weeks ago and can follow up on his return to the Nottinghamshire track in the sunbets. co.uk Novice Stakes.

David Simcock’s colt travelled with plenty of exuberance through the early stages of his debut, so it is testament to his talent that he had enough in the tank to comfortably see off Dawn Dancer by three lengths without being asked for maximum effort.

To put the form into some sort of context, Dawn Dancer had finished a similar distance behind the high-class subsequent winner On The Warpath on his previous outing, while the third from that race, Desert Wind, has won twice since.

Silchester clearly handles the Fibresand and with that initial experience under his belt, he can maintain his unbeaten record before going on to bigger and better things.

The Keith Dalgleish-trained Ray Purchase is two from two at the Newark circuit and looks to have been found a good opportunity to make it three in the 32Red.com Handicap.

While his form on the grass is nothing to write home about, the gelded son of Lethal Force has proved admirably consistent in the early part of his allweather career, only once finishing out of the three in six starts. He bolted up here in mid-january before chasing homesubsequentwinnerharvest Day at Wolverhampton and had a successful return to Southwell when making all the running and winning readily three weeks ago.

Ray Purchase is rated 62 for his latest assignment, a stone higher in the weights than when opening his account little over a month ago. But many of his rivals are out of form, whereas Dalgleish’s three-year-old is clearly on the improve.

Shamrokh looks the best bet at Chelmsford’s evening fixture. The former John Gosden inmate has won his last two starts at the Essex venue for Mick Appleby, following a couple of fine efforts in defeat. This £10,000 contest looks competitive but Shamrokh should be very hard to beat.