Saturday Stuff

[Mabbs]

The first two races at Haydock have a couple of solid looking runners in Holland Park and Genghis. Nothing that clever about picking either of them but if the fields stay 12 runners+ and you're getting 1/4 odds the first 3 you have the chance of a safe looking bet. Both of them around the 3/1, they don't make a huge amount of appeal to me as win singles but an e/w double would produce a small profit as long as they both place and if Holland Park wins you can have a decent free bet on Genghis. Over at Lingfield the first race throws up another Richard Hughes dilemma for me. Looks to be on the best filly in the race but will he manage to get her home. He's had a couple of nice winners in the last week or so but he's also had a few that he's eased right down to finish nowhere when he probably could have been a lot closer to the places. Lucky Spin put up an excellent performance when winning here over c&d last year in a maiden and went on to win a 17k listed race at Warwick before disappointing in Group 3 but I put that down to the stable being out of form at the time rather than her lack of ability. The stable are in good form currently and I think it's best to catch their runners early in the season because they seem to be able to get them ready first time. I backed Capricho when I was at Newmarket last week and I'm willing to stick with him today. He wasn't beaten far and imo is a main contender off this mark even though some would argue he's past his best as an 8yo. I've also got to have a small interest on Seb in this who is riding Greenslades for the Makin Yard. This horse pays for his consistency and would probably need to be a few lbs lower to win but again has solid e/w claims. 1pt e/w double Holland Park 1.20 Haydock and Genghis 1.50 Haydock 1pt win Lucky Spin 1.10 Lingfield 1/2pt e/w Capricho and 1/2pt e/w Greenslades 1.40 Lingfield 5pts Staked