Dancer looks smart bet
Bryan Smart enjoyed his most successful ever season on the level this summer and his Aegean Dancer looks to hold solid claims in the Pontins.com Handicap at Wolverhampton.
Smart’s forte seems to be training sprinters and winners at the last two Royal Ascot meetings have advertised his talents to a whole host of new admirers.
The exploits of the devilishly quick Captain Gerrard and Moorhouse Lad and the resurgence of Hellvelyn have kept the likeable Smart in the public domain all year.
And Aegean Dancer has the look of a typical Smart improper. Unraced at two, he showed a decent, if unspectacular, level of form at three.
He seemed to have gone backwards as a four-year-old but he really grasped the nettle in the closing months of the turf campaign.
Despite steadily rising up the handicap, he finished off with a career-best effort on the final day of the season at Doncaster.
He may have finished seventh but to be beaten only two and a quarter lengths by horses of the calibre of Galeota and Borderlescott means he should take all the beating back on the all-weather, a surface that should hold no fears as he has a win at Southwell to his name.
Paul Webber’s Golano must have upset the handicapper in a former life as he refuses to lower him from a mark of 70.
However, he has returned from a lengthy absence this year with most of his old ability and relishes the test of stamina that the Pontins Great Family Holidays Handicap will provide him with.
At Kempton Ed Dunlop’s Pharaohs Queen looks a good bet in the EBF Wbx.com Median Auction Maiden Stakes.
The fact that she was tuned up enough to finish third on her debut is a good sign as Dunlop’s juveniles usually come on a ton for the experience.
She was doing all her better work at the finish that day so the step up from seven furlongs to a mile should be right up her street.
There are plenty of exposed maidens in this heat and while this filly will not prove herself to be a world beater, she showed sufficiently more promise than most on her debut to suggest that we should not be looking elsewhere for the winner.
John Spearing’s Rajeh was pulled out of a hot handicap at Cheltenham on Sunday on account of the rain-softened ground but the Burton Overy Novices’ Hurdle looks at his mercy at Leicester.
A decent performer on the level, he finished third behind Galactic Star in a hot handicap at York in the summer and he has continued in a fine vein of form over hurdles.
He was only beaten a quarter of a length by Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Platin Grounds at Cheltenham and a repeat of that performance will make him very tough to beat indeed.
Evan Williams’ Backstage returns to hurdles after a spell chasing last winter and he looks the pick in the Golden Miller Handicap Hurdle.
