Paul Ferguson has one selection for us on Saturday, Il Va De Soi in the 3.18 at Kempton. | Free Bets |
With no jumps racing and the day’s all-weather action looking distinctly average, I thought I would take a look at one of Saturday’s feature contests, in the vain hope us of seeing some National Hunt racing in the UK in the new few days.
If anywhere beats the weather on Saturday, it could (possibly) be Kempton and in the unlikely event of the fixture going ahead, it will surely take place on testing ground. The Lanzarote Hurdle is, as always, a competitive contest and the top of the market seems to have been priced up correctly with several in-form horses at the head of the betting, including last year’s third and recent Newbury winner Impose Toi. One who could contract a bit, however, is Il Va De Soi who I put up at Cheltenham in November, when he ran well on ground which would have been much quicker than ideal. His improvement last spring coincided with running on soft and heavy ground and this sort of trip seems to be just about perfect for the grey, who travels well through his races, so ought to be suited to Kempton (actually ran well here in a bumper on Rules debut back in February 2023).
Harry Derham has had well-documented problems with his gallop at home in recent weeks, but has been saddling runners again during the past week or more and since 29th December, his six runners have produced form figures of 112321. Therefore, the stable appears to be in fine form and with conditions to suit, the lightly-raced seven-year-old would make plenty of appeal and is available at a general 14-1 with several leading firms. That looks to be more than fair in terms of an each-way price and should the track beat the freeze, I could see him going off much shorter.
Saturday’s selection:
Lanzarote Hurdle (ante-post) 3.18 Kempton – Il Va De Soi @ 14/1
NB. All odds shown are correct at time of publishing and are subject to change.
