Floodlit Stakes Tips & Betting Preview

Race Time: 7.10pm Meeting: Kempton Day: Wednesday 4th November 2015
Distance: 1m 4f Full Race Name: 32Red Floodlit Stakes (Listed Race)

Wednesday evening racing can be dull at times but this race slips in nicely before the excitement of the Champions League.

It’s a tricky card to work out, with five different weights between the nine horses ranging from nine stone nine to eight stone seven with a variety of penalties and allowances.

Top weight is the ever present Fire Fighting, who has run an incredible 48 times given he’s only 4 years old but has just two wins at Class 2 and one win at Listed despite numerous attempts. He’s the class act of the race with a mark of 109, three pounds higher than anything else, and he won on the All Weather last time out.

Darmouth, on the other hand, has had just 8 career runs and converted four of those into wins. He’s gone up 23 pounds since winning at Sandown over 1m 2f in May and ran well in a much hotter race than this at Ascot last time out in September. He’s a half brother to Manatee who was a dual Group 2 winner in France and while he’s slightly worse off than he would be in a handicap on official ratings he’s coming here in good form. He’s never raced on All Weather before but he’s at the top of this game at the moment and will come here a touch fresher than some of those ahead of him in the market.

Grendisar has done some travelling this summer, finishing 5th over at Turkey’s Veliefendi before returning to finish 6 lengths behind Fire Fighting at Chelmsford at the start of the month. He gets a 12 pound swing in the weight for that defeat though and with plenty of previous All Weather experience he’s got an excellent chance here. However, the bookies have clocked this (obviously) and at 15/8 favourite he’s shorter than we’d want to back.

Finally, In The Fast Lane is an intriguing type, having started her career in South Africa where she won a 3 year old Group 1 and a Fillies Grade 1 a year later. She was sent off 50/1 in September for a conditions stakes race but that was her first run for over a year and she was beaten a similar distance by Tryster as Grendisar when they faced off back in April on Good Friday. She gets a handy fillies allowance here and has no penalty so is well off in the weights. At 20/1 she’s the Each Way value in this race.