3.00pm Lingfield Tips & Betting Preview 08/11/2016

IN SUMMARY: Jamie Snowden has a very interesting recruit from France in Lautaret and if he is 100% on his UK debut he should be fighting out the finish. Tom Scudamore is also a very interesting jockey booking but he might have his work cut out to beat THEATRE MILL (6/5) who was a winner over two and a half miles at Southwell in September and bumped into the highly progressive Boa Island of the Paul Nicholls yard when 2nd at Wincanton last time out. He is certainly no superstar and is pretty exposed but he should have enough in the locker to see off his three rivals on this occasion.

1 CHANGING THE GUARD – Useful 10 year old chaser who was a decent third at Uttoxeter in a Class 5 handicap hurdle over two miles last month. He won a Fakenham seller over fences earlier in the year and a mark of 129 is plenty high enough on his return to fences. He has to give our selection ten pounds and give the French import nearly two stone so it would be some performance if he won this. Very hard to fancy.

2 AUTHORIZED TOO – Five year old gelding by Authorized trained by Noel Williams. Won a maiden hurdle at Plumpton in March and won a handicap hurdle at Worcester in July off a mark of 118 over two miles. Two poor runs since and he was tailed off last of the seven runners on chase debut at Ludlow last month. He is not bred to be a chaser so it looks a strange choice by connections. He has been dropped two pounds for that run but he is likely to come up well short once more.

3 THEATRE MILL – 8 year old King’s Theatre gelding trained by Richenda Ford and looks the horse they all have to beat. Won over fences for Paul Nolan in Ireland in the past and was impressive when landing a 0-120 handicap at Southwell in September. He was no match for Boa Island in a three runner affair at Wincanton last time out but that is potentially a very smart recruit to the Paul Nicholls stable so there was no shame in that. With so many doubts circling the other three runners, he is a major player.

4 LAUTARET – French import having his first start in the UK for the Jamie Snowden yard and the booking of Tom Scudamore has to be a major positive. Third in a maiden chase at Meral in April and third at Granville when last seen, not beat far on both occasions. He can clearly jump a fence which is half the battle and if the yard have him spot on here, he is off a very nice weight. Looks the only danger to Theatre Mill.