14:00 Newcastle

With natural improvement from first run to next I think HOUGOUMONT is going to be extremely hard to beat at Newcastle on Wednesday. This colt was a big eye-catcher on debut at Carlisle, travelling well throughout the race before closing on the eventual winner all the way to the line. He wasn’t given a hard time of it and is expected to have improved plenty. The winner was the odds-on Lakota Blue and he has followed up at Redcar since. They pulled 3 lengths clear from the rest and there has been a winner in behind too. The sixth Braveheart Boy won at Pontefract so it really stacks up. Mountain Warrior looks the danger having shown promise before getting tired finishing fourth at Ayr last month. He sets the standard on that and is expected to give the selection most to think about. Tribal Hunter is the most interesting of the debutants.

20:20 Kempton

Gleneagles filly STRAWBERRI won twice as a 3yo and while she hasn’t quite managed to get her head back in front this season she has looked a work in progress and it surely won’t be far away now? She left her reappearance run behind to finish third at Haydock and improved again staying on well late to finish third at Newcastle last time. She looked a bit outpaced that day so this step up to a mile and a half should prove ideal. I’ll be surprised if she isn’t better than a mark of 82 so this looks a good opportunity. Duke Of Verona didn’t need to improve to win at Sandown but he did need every yard of the trip so might just get tapped for toe back down to a mile and a half here. Napper Tandy won well here last year so has to be respected as well but his run at Chelmsford last time was hardly convincing. Vanity Affair has been freshened up and is also noted.