Sixties Groove looks a likely candidate for top honours in the 32Red London Middle Distance Final Handicap at Kempton this afternoon.
As a son of the stable’s St Leger hero Sixties Icon, it is little wonder the three-year-old struggled over shorter trips in his early career.
His sole juvenile appearance was not devoid of promise, but he failed to make a significant impression on his first two starts of this season, both over an extended mile-and-seven furlongs.
However, he made a successful start to his handicap career over this course and distance in June off 63 and has not looked back.
A wide-margin win at Epsom earned him a big rise in the weights, but he has competed well in good handicaps on the grass at Goodwood and Newmarket since and appears capable of winning off his current rating of 91.
This one-mile-three-furlong contest looks competitive, but Sixties Icon is clearly in good heart and acts on the track.
Yalawin gets the nod in the Breeders Supporting Racing EBF Maiden Stakes.
Roger Varian’s Lawman colt shaped with huge encouragement on his debut at Newbury earlier in the month, placing third behind a couple of horses with solid form in the book in Parfait and Firefright.
Yalawin will surely step forward from that initial experience.
Issue can confirm debut promise in the Breeders Backing Racing EBF Maiden Fillies’ Stakes.
The daughter of Nayef sported a hood on her introduction at this venue last month and having unshipped her rider before the start, she seemingly has her quirks.
That said, she has plenty of ability to go with the attitude judged on the way she came home to finish third.
Smart mare Kassis can make a successful reappearance at Hereford.
Jamie Snowden’s inmate opened her account over fences in testing conditions at Bangor last December and ran creditably when 100/1 for a Listed event at Huntingdon a couple of months later.
A competitive Cheltenham heat in April proved a bridge too far, but she rounded off her campaign in winning fashion at Huntingdon in May and makes her first start since in the Re Group 15 Year Anniversary Mares’ Handicap Chase.
She is 4lb higher in the weights, but the rise does not look insurmountable.
IRISH NEWS YANKEE
Nap: Sixties Groove (4.50: Kempton)
Double: Yalawin (2.50: Kempton)
Treble: Issue (3.20: Kempton)
Yankee: Kassis (2.30: Hereford)
