Sanam
It’s a very windy morning here in HQ but it seems that we have been lucky compared to other parts of the country where the weather has been a lot worse.
I was glad to finish 2017 on a high with a winner at Lingfield on Saturday. Colourful Career appreciated the step up to ten furlongs and he should remain competitive in a handicap when we next run him. Conflagration was disappointing earlier in the week and he will have a holiday to freshen him up.
We have three runners this evening at Wolverhampton and all three go there with a realistic chance of winning. Arnarson has been incredibly frustrating but he has been shaping as if the 7f around Wolverhampton will be tailor made for him and he should not be too far away. Tavener came back to form last time over course and distance, Arlecchino’s Leap is a dual course and distance winner who has fallen to a rating nine pounds below his highest winning mark and Clock Chimes ran well on handicap debut before then losing his way. British Embassy has a good claimer on board and if he gets loose on the lead and is ready to roll on his first run back since the end of August, he could prove dangerous. It is a race full of ifs and buts and there is an argument for most of the field, we go into the race with optimism but it is hard to be confident.
King Kevin has been thriving on his racing of late and he seems well suited by the course and distance. He travelled well last time and his performance suggested he should continue to be competitive up in grade. Whilst he is eighteen pounds higher than when he won his first race he has been progressing and he has a good chance despite it being a competitive contest. Valley Of Light has a bad draw in thirteen but she is a well-bred filly who is lightly raced and her trainer has a very good record at Wolverhampton. She does need to improve a good deal on the bare form of her last run but that is not an impossibility. Bayston Hill and Jack Of Diamonds are both consistent types who got their heads in front last time. Archipeligo is a dual course and distance winner who won last time and Luv U Whatever was only just behind him in third and cannot be completely discounted.
Sanam is our final runner in the 7:10. He is a well-bred son of Oasis Dream who has been disappointing in his three starts so far. I do feel he is better than what he has showed us so far and he hasn’t helped himself by breaking slowly in each of his three starts. We have put the blinkers on him in the hope that it will help him concentrate and they appear to have aided him at home. These types of contests are normally very open and you can make a case for a few of his rivals. Critical Thinking has fallen to a very workable mark and is the rightful favourite after a promising run over shorter last week. Ravenhoe is another who has tumbled down the weights and his turn will come over the Winter at this level.