HARR TO STAR
WE may be well into the start of the Flat season, but I was hoping the rain might have stopped so we could savour the last few weekends of jumps racing.
The weather gods thought differently though, and have decided they want us to look at the Flat this week to tee you up for what’s to come.
Fortunately, the all-weather meeting at Kempton isn’t short of talent to watch.
In the Listed Snowdrop Fillies’ Stakes we see the return of the Crisfords’ smart mare
CHOISYA (2.05).
She notched up six wins in 2023 and signed off with a tough victory over course and distance.
She proved that day that her handicap mark of 98 was about right, and considering she is joint highest rated in this race off 100 while carrying the same weight as everything else, she seems pretty difficult to oppose.
Her young jockey Harry Davies also has a 19% strike-rate when teaming up with Simon and Ed, with them scoring twice together this week already.
A lightly raced horse in the Virgin Bet Rosebery Handicap has also caught my eye.
OLD HARROVIAN (2.40) is not straightforward to train but he showed a good level of ability when landing his two novices easily last season. He then ran very creditably when stepping up to Group Three company at Newbury but hasn’t been seen since.
He ran too keenly at Newbury but still managed to finish the race off with a finishing speed percentage of 104.68% showing that he still saw the trip out well despite that.
And if the application of a tongue-tie works, he should still be ahead of the handicapper and won’t need to improve a lot from that Newbury run to win this.
In the stayers’ handicap, I believe Ian Wiliams’ (above) AQWAAM (3.15) will continue his good run of form after his win last time.
He flew home on this step back up to two miles with a finishing speed percentage of 112.91%.
I think he looks the sort to thrive in these sorts of races so a 4lb rise in the weights should be no problem for him either.