14:10 Sedgefield

Walk In The Park mare SPOT ON SOPH (best price 9/4) has already developed into a better chaser than hurdler winning 2 of her last 4 starts in this sphere. She beat a good horse in Da Vinci Hand at Catterick last month and a 5lb rise looks perfectly reasonable for that. I know the latter has let the form down since being pulled up at Carlisle but he never travelled that day and is much better than that. The step back up in trip should suit and I can see her travelling strongly into this. The danger is likely Anightinlambourn who scored in good style at Huntingdon last month and is also up 5lb. She needs to prove she can back that up but if she does she will keep the selection honest. The market likes Moonlight Glory and while that was a good run when second at Hexham I have my doubts over her. I think she lacks a gear change so while she will likely be there competing she might be done for tactical speed.

20:30 Kempton

The money came for CATBIRD SEAT (best price 2/1) at Wolverhampton last month and he made no mistake running on strongly to win convincingly at the line. He was hampered when trying to make headway too so it was a performance you can certainly mark up. He had been threatening to do that for a while and I think connections have found a good opportunity for him to follow up with a mere 3lb rise looking lenient. Smith is definitely the danger as he progressed nicely up to this sort of trip to bring up a hat-trick of wins at Lingfield. He was disappointing here last time behind Prince Abu but has been freshened up since and should get competitive off the same mark. Blazon is hard to catch right but has won 4 times over C&D and is hard to entirely rule out but he’d need them to go an end-to-end gallop. Atomic Jack is interesting to some extent but will likely need the run back from 10 months off the track.