KEMPTON PARK HORSE RACING 2021 - MEETING #9 WEDNESDAY 17th MARCH

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. Dropped a few points here last time out, but we are still ahead after our good start to the year. The 2021 Cheltenham Festival is of course taking place this week you can follow our daily pages on that event too, while away from the racing the Six Nations rugby returned last weekend with Wales one more win away from a Grand Slam, England scored the decisive try late on to beat France, in the football my side AFC Wimbledon facing a relegation battle were away at Bristol Rovers and a drab 0-0 draw leaves us bottom of league one.

Returning to the horse racing all results here are reported to 1pt at Starting Prices (SP) 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. A successful opening few  months in 2021 means we arrive here with a +29.93 profit and will continue to keep a record to SP throughout the season.

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. Currently standing at 9/12 (75%) after the latest meeting and we shall see how things progress during the year ahead. 

This week will be our ninth Wednesday evening meeting of the year although sadly it's still being held behind closed doors as we remain locked down as a nation, schools are back and a roadmap to are more normal life is in progress though. Tonight's meeting we shall now be expecting a nine race card with the final four handicaps for us to review. Our action will now commence at 16:05 with a novice contest for 3yo's over just under 11f, then we should end the card around about 20:20 with our final handicap event over six furlongs. We've got a busy week with Cheltenham on too so updates might be a little later than usual. 

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 there's likely to be plenty of wind and rain plus the temperature will only reach a high of 12C tonight.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight;

18:50  Unibet 3 Uniboosts A Day Handicap
1m  [Class 4  11 runners]

Top weight CITYZEN SERG [10th @22/1] is interesting with Thore Hammer Hansen claiming a useful 3lb and coming back to the mile trip (seemed to fade over further recently). A three time winner on the all weather track at Wolverhampton, has raced once here in the past when runner up in a novice event and could outrun his 16/1 price quote. LEQUINTO [6th @5/1] is an ex-Irish trained 4yo now with Tony Carroll has been well placed, not finished out of the top three in his last seven races. Won well here in January and although up 5lb should still be in the shake up with David Probert riding.

19:20  Unibet Extra Place Offers Every Day Handicap

1m 7f 218y  [Class 3  5 runners]

The stayers contest has attracted only five runners, headed by Mick Channon's Koeman this 7yo has his highest ever mark of 101 to cope with although with jockey George Bass taking off a useful 5lb could still play a part. Next is Vibrance in the Cheveley park stud silks, runner up here last time to a Hollie Doyle winner would still need to improve again to win this. 

The trip is no issue for the Mark Johnston trained THAI TERRIOR [5th @9/4] who having won at Chelmsford didn't seem to act on the Fibresand surface at Southwell, should run well here and is our first selection. Picked together with CLEONTE [WON @6/1] who after being successful at the Royal Ascot meeting in 2019 (Queen Alexandra Stakes) has been placed since but now coming back down in the weights to be a potential winner here. The final entry that completes tonight's line up is Al Kout who is without a win since success here two years ago and might find one or two better handicapped as a result.

19:50  Try Our New Super Boosts At Unibet Handicap
7f  [Class 4  10 runners]

Lightly raced for a 5yo ALNASHERAT is a well bred individual and could still have another handicap in him, this doesn't look the strongest of opposition and fine at this trip. Also interested in LETHAL TALENT [WON @7/2] where Hollie Doyle takes over onboard Jane Chapple-Hyam's filly, wouldn't need to improve much to land this and entitled to go close again regardless.

20:20  Try Our New Price Boosts At Unibet Handicap

6f  [Class 4  8 runners]

A winner of a higher grade race here PHUKET POWER [4th 10/1] runs for the King Power Racing ownership, hasn't been seen on the track since November has won here twice and the mark looks attractive tonight if he's fit to go following the break. Another coming back from a break is THE LAMPLIGHTER [3rd 18/1] winner at Goodwood and also here last year, has plenty of experience and been placed in higher grades too, should still have the speed for the six furlong trip even though he's now a 6yo, also to be considered the next time he's found racing at Goodwood so put in the horse tracker diary.

Staked -- 8 points.       Returns -- 11.5 points.
Results will appear here later during Wednesday evening. All results are accurate and recorded to SP returns to a 1pt win stake only and updated each meeting. A winning start to 2021 was most welcome, the first few months have proved to be successful and our overall profit stands at +29.93 pts after meeting #8. We will update tonight's meeting #9 during the course of this evening, good start and couple of winners ensures another profit tonight and moves us up a little more to +33.43 pts as we head into meeting #10. 

Lays -- 9/12 We had a good season last year again 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. Two more favourites beaten tonight so our stats are improved again to 11/14.

Tonight's Lays;

17:45 - RIDGEWAY AVENUE [1m Maiden Div 1]. Lost 6th Evens.

18:20 - EPIC EXPRESS [1m Maiden Div 2]. Lost 5th 13/8f

Our next midweek floodlit meeting here will be held on Wednesday 31st March so keep well and hopefully we can have a successful 2021.