The fastest five furlong sprint in UK racing is held at Epsom on Derby Day. The ‘Dash’ always proves to be a spectacle and with twenty runners lined-up, it looks extremely competitive.
The highly drawn horses have historically had an advantage, indeed last year the top four places were filled by the four highest drawn horses. However, there does seem to be pace all over the track on this occasion so it will be interesting to see whether we get a significant split in the field as the race unfolds.
The first of our selections has been gelded this season and had a tongue-tie applied which seems to have really sparked EXCESSABLE back in to life with two wins from two on the turf this season.
Those victories came with a bit in hand on both occasions and I am not convinced a further 4lb rise to an official rating of 87 will diminish the chances of a gelding that is, at the moment, on the upgrade and thriving.
Excessable has some decent juvenile form behind him too including a 5/22 in the Wetherbys Super Sprint for two-year-olds which landed him a rating of 94 in his first season. In contrast, he picked up just the one win at Ripon (5f, gd) in the summer time of the 2016 campaign, and rather lost his way otherwise which saw his mark tumble down the handicap.
Now as a four-year-old, Excessable is not completely exposed, particularly as he looks to enjoy his racing a lot more and wherever the pace does comes from, a draw of 13 isn’t a bad one, with the option to switch to the far side rail if it suits.
We fully expect to see a decent run from former winners Desert Law and Caspian Prince. The likes of Duke Of Firenze, and also Boom The Groom can go close as regular stalwarts of this race, but I can’t let the extremely quick and ultra-consistent KIMBERELLA go unbacked with another big run on the card.
Kimberella relished the nature of this race last year and was so unfortunate not to win, finishing second by a short-head after he briefly planted himself in the stalls as the other horses broke from the gates.
His results last season earned him a mark of 109 – which is his current rating and 17lbs higher than his mark last year in this race – and he kicked off the 2017 campaign with two all-weather victories over 5f and 6f before running a respectable 7/15 in the 5f Group 3 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket earlier in May finishing just the four lengths behind Group 1 winner Marsha with Goldream, Priceless, Washington DC all in between – representing extremely solid form.
His racing mark would be the highest winning mark in this race in recent history and although that is off-putting, the reality is that his mark has been given on merit and he continues to be in excellent form. Some comfort can also be taken in the fact that these handicaps are becoming better and more competitive races each year and the selection also benefits from a decent 7lb claimer to get him down to an effective mark of 102 which is within the realms of a ‘Dash’ winner.
This coupled with the fact that Kimberella has bagged the stands-side rail in stall 20, makes him an appealing each-way prospect at what look like fair odds of 10/1.
0.75pt each-way Kimberella @10/1, 15:45 Epsom Downs, Saturday (1/5 odds, five places with Paddy Power)
0.5pt each-way Excessable @12/1, 15:45 Epsom Downs, Saturday (1/5 odds, five places with Paddy Power)
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