After a frustrating couple of days with a couple of fancies falling when holding every chance and one beaten by the shortest of noses I move onto Ascot tomorrow for a classy day of racing.
13:05, BetMGM Handicap Chase
Unanswered Prayers 5/1 (Bet365), 2pts win
Considering all of the recent abandonments it's surprising that this race has only managed to pull in 6 runners. There's a few in this that like to get on with it and I expect this to be a proper test at the trip. Unanswered Prayers should benefit from that and comes into this off a couple of career best efforts. He'll be more at home on this better surface than the heavy ground he ran on last time out at Sandown.
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14:15, bet365 Handicap Chase
Scarface 6/1, 1pt each-way (4 places)
There's bundles of money up for grabs in this handicap and it's pretty open. Martator looks most likely to go off favourite but he's up to a very high mark now and looked anchored by it last time out. He could be vulnerable here. Kotmask should run another good race but he's also up to a career high mark now and I'm not sure an extra couple of furlongs here is ideally what he wants. Flegmatik would be interesting if he bounced back to form but I wonder if eyes are set on Kempton next month with him. Instead I'll chance that this could finally be Scarface's day in the sun at Ascot. He's 3 pounds better off with Kotmask than last time out and I fancy that he'll enjoy the slight increase in distance better than Gary Moore's runner. I think he's shown the last twice that he's well up to winning a race from his mark and he's reunited with stable jockey Brendan Powell today. He races off just 10 stone 2 pounds here.
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14:50, BetMGM Holloway's Handicap Hurdle
Kamsinas 17/2 (William Hill), 1pt each-way (4 places)
This is a really difficult race to figure out. Bo Zenith ran a mighty race from the clouds to finish 3rd at Cheltenham last time out and if he builds on that then he should be winning races from this mark. There's always a worry about horses bouncing after such a long time off the track though and he didn't look straightforward at Cheltenham. Altobelli looks well handicapped off 132 however, I'm not 100% sure that he has the pace at the required time to win a race at this trip on decent ground. I'd be happier to see him on a softer surface and up even further in trip. I'll go against them with Kamsinas. This 8 year old is 7 pounds higher than when winning at Aintree in the Autumn but he was giving bundles of weight away to one of Olly Murphy's that day who came out and won since at Cheltenham. Kamsinas then put up a really big effort to finish 4th on desperate ground in a tough race at Haydock at the back end of November. He's been given time to get over that and comes here in decent form. This trip is what he wants and I think he'll love the better surface here. Last season he gave Be Aware weight and a beating on similar ground and over a similar trip at Kempton, everything looks in his again favour here.
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