15:46 Newcastle

I’ve been really impressed with IMPERIUM (best price 5/2) so as good a race as this looks he gets a confident vote to come away with the prize again. This son of Frankel has now won 6 of his 8 starts on the AW and stayed on strongly to beat a decent field albeit only 3 runners over this trip at Kempton back in January. A 3lb rise looks lenient and under a stalking ride again I think he’ll be finishing best under Richard Kingscote. Onesmoothoperator is my idea of the main danger. He is a useful horse and looked good winning at Southwell back in December. He has been beaten twice since but only narrowly and if he improves for the step up in trip he will give the selection a race. Zeeband won the Northumberland Vase over C&D for Roger Varian and won in good style at Wolverhampton last month. He is also likely to get competitive.
 

20:00 Southwell

With 3 wins from his last 4 starts I’m confident MAHARASHTRA (best price 13/8) is the one to beat again at Southwell on Thursday. He showed a great attitude to lead close home last time and turned out quickly under a penalty I think he has plenty in his favour again. He clearly has a decent gear change and I think he is versatile as to how this might pan out. Morlaix hasn’t been disgraced since winning at Chelmsford in January and is likely to emerge as the danger if bouncing back from that disappointing run at Lingfield last time. Hector’s Here finished last at Wolverhampton last time but that was a good race and he will find this easier so he also enters calculations. Richard R H B gets Laura Pearson on board claiming a handy 3lb but he needs to show more than what he has been doing recently for me to part with my hard earned.