Saturday Pricewise

qc3

4-1 Rivellino can show
his Group potential

AT THE start of last season Rivellino was a horse I had down as a future Group-race sprinter. The wheels came off in mid-season and he clearly had a few issues, but he got right back on track at Wolverhampton recently and he still appears to have what it takes to hold his own in high-class company.

Hopefully he will prove it in the Compare Bookmakers at Bookmakers.co.uk Handicap at Lingfield (3.10) this afternoon because everything looks right for him and it will be disappointing if he isn’t rated a lot higher than his current mark of 94 in a few months.

After missing the summer and autumn on turf, Rivellino has run three times on the all-weather and has shown steady improvement.

Last time he quickly went clear of some decent all-weather horses and there is every chance he will improve on that run. He will need to, as this is a much better race, but in the spring when he was running with distinction against the likes of Body And Soul and Moviesta in some of the best three-old sprint handicaps all season, this type of contest would have represented a drop in class, so he should be able to hold his own fairly comfortably.

The slight concern, if there is one, is that his three wins have come at Kempton and Wolverhampton and he didn’t run up to scratch on his previous try here. However, there were excuses on that occasion and I expect Rivellino to win pretty easily.

Prolific winner Perfect Pasture has been a revelation since the visor was applied, winning all five starts in the headgear and rising from a mark of 57 to his current perch of 93.

He scored with much more in hand than the neck margin suggests over 5f at Kempton last time and might still have more to offer, so looks by far the biggest danger.

The Coral.co.uk Handicap (2.35) looks really difficult and, given the big field, I expect there will be loads of traffic problems up the home straight.

Course-and-distance winner Modernstone is still unexposed and it is easy to see why she heads the market. However, this is really competitive and she has a wide draw to overcome, so at the prices it could pay to look elsewhere.

Given that my Chilean form is non-existent, it is impossible to gauge how Group winner Energia Eros is going to run on his debut for Marco Botti, while the other two runners from the yard have to be considered as well, Halfsin in particullar having the ability to go well if he gets an easy lead. However, at a double figure price it might be worth siding with the John Quinn-trained Kashmir Peak.

A good hurdler, he was better than ever on the Flat last season, finishing a close second in one of those ultra-competitive 1m4f handicaps at Doncaster at the backend.

He finished in front of several quality rivals and the way he travelled and the speed he showed suggested all-weather racing might suit him perfectly.

I can’t believe his astute trainer is sending him to Lingfleld (where he didn’t have a single runner last season) in first-time blinkers just to ready him for a hurdles campaign and it’s worth noting he ran well at Dundalk when trained by Ger Lyons as a three-year-old.

Advice

Kashmir Peak
2.35 Lingfield
1pt win at 11-1 with Coral (10-1 generally)


Rivellino
3.10 Lingfield
1pt win at 4-1 generally