3.25pm Kempton Tips & Betting Preview 26/03/2016

We just love it when we spot a bit of decent each way value and in Searchlight we have found one that ticks pretty much all the boxes. His last run at Lingfield saw him absolutely flying at the death to be narrowly denied by a short head at the line, and we just get the feeling that jockey Pat Cosgrave will be looking to avenge that defeat on Jim Boyle’s sprinter this afternoon and as a course and distance winner off just the three pounds lower he surely has to make the frame at the barest minimum.

There has been a school of thought for more years than I care to remember that tells us to back any horse that is a course and distance winner and has won his or her last two races, and although we don’t subscribe to such simplicity, it does mean we at least need to mention Spring Loaded who has a few engagements this weekend but ends up here where he has a decent chance. Trained in Newmarket by Paul D’Arcy, and likely to be ridden by Shane Kelly who clearly gets on so well with the son of Zebedee, he is a heart attack waiting to happen for punters as he needs to be produced fast and late (and presumably stops once he hits the front), but that also makes him very difficult to handicap and we feel he had a bit more up his sleeve than the minimal amount he has been punished for that victory.

Looking for a really interesting alternative proved difficult but then again, Stan Moore has an interesting one right at the bottom of the weights with the lightly raced Invincible Diamond. His trainer is one of racing’s nice guys who has dropped off most punters’ radars in recent years, but give him a horse good enough and the stable will get wins out of it without a doubt, this son of Arakan being one of them. After arriving at the yard from Ireland in February 2015 they only got the one race in to him when he was fourth to Gurkha Friend at Leicester before he disappeared for close to twelve months. Reappearing at Wolverhampton over seven furlongs Martin Dwyer attempted to make most of the running and was actually still in front at the furlong pole, suggesting the drop back to six furlongs today could see similar tactics attempted. With a likely increase in his fitness (he was sent off a 40/1 shot that day so fair to say he was unfancied), he could run well this afternoon though this is a leap up in class which could be an issue.

Whether it’s the name or the form or a combination of the two we can’t be sure, but we do like Karl Burkes Yeeoow who has now won five races from forty-seven starts, including three on the all-weather tracks (two over this course and distance) – plus four seconds and a third. Now a seven year old, there is a chance he is going backwards due to age but he has won races off of much higher ratings than he suffers today, and if he is in one of going moods again, he ought to be more than capable of making the frame at least, and at a decent price as well.

One more to go, and a trainer we hold in high regard in David Barron who sends Steelriver here looking for win number four, all of them on the artificial surfaces. His second to Zac Brown at Wolverhampton looked to be his best run of the season to us, and suggested he still has a win or two left in him. He does need holding up but Graham Gibbons may have left it a fraction too late that day or he may have scored, and given the run of the race as his style always needs, he is very much an outsider to consider if you like that sort of bet of course.