FRIDAY 5TH Selections

I am happy to not bet on the turf while the going is dreadful and probably getting worse with forecast gales, rain and snow across the UK.

I am £101 in profit on the year with £30 of that bet ante post on I am Maximus and Mac Tottie at Aintree next week.

If you doubt my profit so far, I am the only one who says exactly what my stakes are on every bet so it's easy for you to check.

Happy punting all and let's hope Aintree survives.

The report I get on Friday for a Saturday feature race.......
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FEATURE RACE FOCUS
KEMPTON - SNOWDROP FILLIES STAKES (LISTED) (CLASS 1) 1M
2.05 Kempton - Saturday 6 April 2024
Virgin Bet Snowdrop Fillies' Stakes (Listed) (Class 1) 1m ITV

Harking back to its Flat turf fixtures, Kempton's meeting this Saturday is one of the key early-season meetings, with a number of valuable contests on the seven-race card. Among those is the Snowdrop Stakes, a 1m Listed race for fillies aged four years or more, which often marks the seasonal debut of fillies who have progressed beyond handicaps or classier types looking for an easier race in which to get their campaigns underway before aiming their sights higher.

Although only ten runners have been declared for this year's renewal, it looks an open race, with James Ferguson's Many Tears a tentative favourite (at the time of writing at 4/1). Previously trained in Ireland by Ger Lyons, for whom she comfortably won a Listed race on the all-weather at Dundalk on her latest start, she enters training with James Ferguson on a career-high mark of 95. That form looks solid rather than exceptional in the context of this race, but she has conditions to suit here and has won two of her three all-weather starts to date.

Simon & Ed Crisford have a live chance with Choisya, who was a course-and-distance winner on her latest start, last November. That success was achieved in a Class 2 handicap off a then-career-high mark of 98. She's gone up 2lb for that win and is the joint highest-rated runner in this race, alongside William Haggas' Mystic Pearl, who showed some form in Group 2 races in Dubai over the winter, but her Listed win at Sandown last July wasn't achieved against the best fillies, and she has a bit to prove here. Connections will be hoping the first-time cheekpieces can illicit some improvement.

Irish trainer Joseph O'Brien has booked top jockey William Buick to ride his entrant Adelaise, who ran well when tried at this level over 1m1f and 1m2f at end of last season. Prior to that, she ran with great credit in defeat in top 1m handicaps, including when a close fourth at Royal Ascot. Rated 98, she doesn't have much to find with the likes of Choisya and could be interesting if ridden handily.

Roger Varian's Julia Augusta is 4lb worse off at the weights with Choisya here than when beaten a neck by the latter filly over course and distance last November. She's a useful handicapper at her best, and while not without a small each-way chance, as a less obvious improver, she looks likely to find a few too good here.

Mysterious Love won a fillies' maiden on heavy ground over a shade further than a mile last May, and was soon elevated to Listed and Group 3 races, running respectably in defeat rather than looking as a star in the ascendant. On that form, she has her work cut out here.

Ed Walker's Rose Prick raced three times last season, finishing a beaten seventh on her final start last July (behind Mysterious Love, in fifth), and presumably some form of issue brought an early end to her season. Her penultimate run of 2024 was a three-length fifth in a fillies' Listed race at Chantilly, which gives her a squeak here, but on balance, she is probably best watched in this race.

The booking of Oisin Murphy for Philip McBride's Zouky catches the eye, and this four-year-old daughter of Zoustar has some decent bits of form over 7f, including a second at Doncaster's St Leger meeting behind an improving winner (for whom it was his third win in four career starts) and a half-length fifth in a Listed fillies' race at Ascot. The Ascot race was a fairly warm renewal and if Zouky properly stays 1m (has only raced once previously over this distance), as her pedigree suggests she should, she could be the value each-way option.

North Yorkshire trainer Gemma Tutty is having a fine season and Enola Grey has been running well in the main this winter, winning her last two starts on the all-weather, over 7f and 1m. She is on a generally upward curve but will have improve more than 15lb to take the fight to Choisya, who'll be carrying the same weight.

James Ferguson's other runner in the race is Mother Mary, a daughter of Zoffany who has raced only four times to date, all as a three-year-old last season. She won a 7f novice stakes on soft ground at Salisbury last season and is unproven on the all-weather, but she was a fair third on her final start, when giving weight away all round but didn't have the smoothest of passages through the second half of the race. The outsider of the field on a rating of just 82 but could be open to more improvement than many of her rivals.

VERDICT: The chance of Many Tears is respected, but CHOISYA looks the form pick, allied to her trainers' excellent current strike rate of 30%. ZOUKY could run well at an each-way price.

Two afternoon nags

2-30 Lingfield Viennoise 7-4.............................WON
4-30 Musselburgh Speed Davis 11-4............already on first post (won)