Captain can take charge over longer trip

AGAIN, the weekend’s fare on the horse racing front isn’t the most inspiriting but Kempton, which is a track I like for national hunt racing, hosts a decent card, which features the Lanzarote Hurdle.

That’s your typically competitive handicap hurdle and while I have a small fancy for something at a monster prize, the best bet on the card comes earlier in the day in the shape of Captain Sunshine in the novices’ hurdle.

Emma Lavelle’s horse ran very green when third behind the very promising and highly regarded Montbazon last March in what was his only start in a bumper, and he made his hurdling debut on his seasonal return late last month at Doncaster. On the latter occasion he was a little keen early but I thought he displayed a huge amount of promise when arguably a shade unlucky to be beaten by the Paul Nicholls-trained favourite, Black Thunder.