KEMPTON PARK RACES 2019 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #26 23rd October

Coming down to the final few months of this annual theme, was hopeful of a more productive second half to the year but we struggling a little. Still time though till we end 2019.

We continue into October and the sporting action continues thick and fast, England and Wales are through to their semi finals in the rugby world cup following wins at the weekend, and we had another successful win in the football as AFC Wimbledon beat Portsmouth 1-0 at home a late winner from my man Terell Thomas (we sponsor his shirt) yet we are still in the drop zone sadly but at least the mood and on field position has improved. News breaks on Sunday night that the Dons have parted company with head coach Wally Downs though not a surprise give recent events off the pitch and he's serving a four week suspension by the FA, wish him well in the future, but for now we continue under Glyn Hodges. A statement on the club website read: "Wally leaves on mutually agreed terms and with our sincerest gratitude for his time with the club, especially his invaluable contribution last season."

Has been a very up and down year overall not just with the racing though the last month was encouraging so with the Autumn and Winter months to come we will continue to focus on the all weather horse racing now while the lights still shine brightly here at Kempton Park throughout this year. We are hopeful of better season than we experienced last year but it's just some fun and excitement to mix up the week we have found it hard and are more than a little behind to SP though it's something I will keep persevering with through to the end of the year. 

Let us move onward with this our twenty sixth Wednesday night of 2019, and will continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting though we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if there is one available. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1 point level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds than this but for the purpose of these results here we simply record SP returns only. Following our last meeting the deficit is currently on -50.32 points to SP returns overall. We continue to battle hard to reduce this and thankfully there is still plenty of time to get this back on track. 

Throughout the year we will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of anticipated short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures we have been fairly successful with our selections so far and last meeting we managed to get another favourite beat so we are now 29/42 (69%+) we will continue with this through 2019.

This Wednesday will be meeting number twenty six for the 2019 AW season and we are expecting an eight race card tonight and we have three handicaps plus the 6f 2yo nursery race to review which should keep us plenty busy enough. The action which will now commence at 16:40 with a 5f handicap contest and tonight's card ends around about 20:10 with our final handicap contest for the sprinters over six furlongs.

Here's a link to this Wednesday's race card; RACECARD

Going and Weather -- The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a lot of cloudy weather with a chill in the air so wrap up warm and more than a fair chance of showers so keep safe in the bars the best we expect the temperature to reach is around 14C by the time the meeting gets underway.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

16:40 -- 5f Handicap.
Ten horses declared for our opening handicap tonight, a low level sprint over the minimum trip, headed by KATHERINE PLACE [2nd 9/2] a 4yo course and distance winner albeit in a class seven event this isn't going to take a lot of winning and she's at least in form. Carrying a similar burden is KNOCKOUT BLOW [4th 11/2] anther 4yo course and distance winner as a 2yo and about five times the price of the other was rated in the high 70s now down to a mark of 54. 

Support for SPOT LITE [8th 9/2] would be interesting has been placed plenty of times, might be able to find a small race like this one day and worth a place bet at the very least if you can.

17:40 -- 6f Nursery Handicap (2yo).

The 2yo nursery has attracted a field of twelve, headed by Magical Force who looks one to oppose here. SIMPLY SUSAN [4th 4/1] [Eve Johnson Houghton] has been placed on three from four races so far and shouldn't be far away while Richard Hannon runs two NEW JACK SWING and LOCO DEMPSEY who would both be expected to run well here but I want to be on the bottom one SERIOUS JOCKIN [8th 25/1] (no G) from Mick Channon and gets all the weight allowance here and has been runner up albeit in a seller hence a big price.

19:40 -- 7f Fillies Handicap.

A field of eleven fillies headed by LADY OF ARAN her course and distance win was two years ago and we'll oppose off this weight tonight. OCTAVE [7th 16/1] is dropping back to an interesting mark now and Mark Johnston doesn't mess around when sending his horses south, ran well at Newmarket when last seen in June and that was a better race too.

The four year old CRYSTAL CASQUE [10th 9/2] is clearly in good order right now and Rod Millman's inmate has won her last two at Sandown and here and with normal improvement can make it a hat trick.

20:10 -- 6f Handicap.

The finale is tricky to resolve although the obvious one is the top weight Penarth Pier who won last time out but doesn't look the type to back that up, however finding the one to beat her is hard. Will take a chance on the Ollie Pears pair of ROARING RORY [5th 14/1] / BILLYOAKES [7th 16/1] both have shown signs of encouragement in recent runs and might not be far away tonight.

Staked -- 8 points.

Returns -- 0.00 points.

Results will appear here later during Wednesday evening. This season we are sadly down by -50.32 points to SP returns. Now only couple more months of the season to go and we will end up with an additional meeting here for the King George Chase on Boxing Day. It's becoming a bit annoying now nothing tonight, down by -58.32 going into next week.

LAYS -- 29/42. Got our lay bet beat last week and we will try to find another one or two successful lay bets this time around and these will show up here later on tonight. Two successfully laid odds on favs tonight, good, 31/44.

Tonight's Lays;

18:10 - EVENING SPIRIT [7f Fillies Novice Stakes Div I]. LOST 2nd 10/11f
18:40 - SORREL [7f Fillies Novice Stakes Div II] LOST 2nd 5/6f.

Our twenty seventh meeting for this year will be held next week on Wednesday 30th October so hope to see you then and throughout the rest of 2019 too.