KEMPTON PARK HORSE RACING 2021 - MEETING #1 WEDNESDAY 6th JANUARY

Welcome to Kempton Park racecourse here for another season of evening meetings following the events on a Wednesday night on the all weather flat track under the lights. We will be blogging throughout 2021 till the end of the year. New Year has seen plenty of sports news with Lewis Hamilton being awarded a knighthood, the engagement of Hollie Doyle and Tom Marquand and AFC Wimbledon playing League One leaders Lincoln City last weekend but sadly lost that one 2-1. Although they should have been hosting Wigan on Wednesday night this game has been called off due to Covid-19 cases in the Wigan squad. The Government have also announce another national lockdown but we expect sport to continue behind closed doors, the meeting for today at Ayr has been called off due to a frozen track.

Back to the horse racing all results here are reported to 1pt at Starting Prices (SP) and this is of course our first meeting of the year so we will be keeping a rolling record of profit/loss all the way through from January till the Boxing Day King George fixture in December.

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 had been fairly successful with our selections throughout last year managed to get plenty of favourites beat so we finished on 33/49 (67.34%). We reset the counters for 2021 and will be continuing this throughout the year again. 

This week we look forward to the first Wednesday evening meeting of the year and sadly it's still being held behind closed doors as we are in Tier 4. Tonight we shall be expecting an eight race card with four handicaps to enjoy. The action will now commence at 15:40 with the first of two divisions of the Racing Tv Classified stakes over a mile, and we should end the card around about 19:15 with a six furlong handicap.

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 chilly weather and it's probably just as well there is no attendance tonight as the temperature will only reach a high of 4C tonight.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

16:40  Unibet 3 Uniboosts A Day Handicap (3yo)

6f  [Class 5  9 runners]

Our opening contest for this meeting is a sprint handicap for three year olds, we have a field of nine declared headed by Black Sparrow the filly was a winner at Lingfield but has failed to repeat that feat in handicaps since, back to her winning mark but passed over this time. We do fancy the chances of ACQUISITOR [8th 8/1] having his third run here off the same handicap rating and improved from 3rd to 2nd so perhaps the win is now due with Tom Marquand booked to ride a big plus. The interesting filly MAMMASAIDKNOCKUOUT [9th 10/1] represents the Richard Hannon yard and Rossa Ryan won on her at Lingfield so is high on the short list tonight too.

17:10  Unibet New Instant Roulette Handicap (3yo)

7f  [Class 6  10 runners]

Another race full of three year olds, but just the two previous winners in the line up NORTONTHORPE BOY [WON 10/3f] won at Wolves last week and could well follow up in this field, very respected, while IESHA [6th 14/1] was an 80/1 shot when successful here in a nursery event in December, might also be able to follow up but won't be that price this time. Rainbow Sign was 4th in that race and was staying on so it's possible he could improve if kept closer to the pace this time.

18:15  Try Our New Super Boosts At Unibet Handicap

1m 7f 218y  [Class 2  8 runners]

The stayers contest is a decent grade tonight, some of the top yards are represented as well, True Destiny returns to the all weather having been outclassed in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket. John Gosden runs AMTIYAZ and this Frankel offspring has stamina proven, should go close with plenty of weight allowance in hand and Hollie Doyle riding. LUCKY DEAL [WON 16/1] is now a 6yo for Mark Johnston and was 4th at Royal Ascot but a proven stayer for a yard that excels with staying types.

19:15  Try Our New Price Boosts At Unibet Handicap

6f  [Class 4  9 runners]

We conclude with a six furlong sprint tonight and a field of nine, headed by SOAR ABOVE [3rd 5/1] who won three weeks ago here with Laura Pearson keeping the ride. A SURE WELCOME [4th 11/1] runs consistently around this mark and was successful at Lingfield last time, while Global Warming is sure for more support does do his winning at Newcastle and is taking a step back up in class again today.

Staked -- 8 points.       Returns -- 21.33 points.
Results will appear here later during Wednesday evening. This season we started afresh and will try hard to stop going well behind but all results are accurate and recorded to SP returns to a 1pt win stake only and updated each meeting. A winning start to 2021 is most welcome, +13.33 pts profit for meeting #1 lets hope this continues. 

Lays -- We had a good season last year with the lays, aiming at favourites and not afraid to take on short odds on shots too. The plan will be for at least one or two each meeting and we will keep those results separate from the handicaps. Both lays were beaten tonight which is a nice start 2/2.

Tonight's Lays;

17:45 - Tampere [1m 4f Novice Stakes]. Lost 3rd 10/3

18:45 - Above [6f Conditions Stakes]. Lost 3rd 15/2

Our next floodlit meeting here will be held next week on Wednesday 13th January so keep well and hopefully we can have a successful 2021.