Two Blondes could be your golden selection at Wetherby

Wetherby – 16:25

This 7f Class 4 handicap for 3yos may not jump out at you as a high-end affair when you’re flicking through your cards, but you’d struggle to find a more competitive race all day.

Artistic Rifles will likely be the favourite here, mainly because the Hills and Murphy combination will always attract attention. But in reality, the four-pound hike is probably about capping this charge’s ability now.

Yes, a four-pound hike for a win seems lenient in most cases, but the previous run in Catterick back in October was one of two things: a leader going too soon, or the likely SP favourite here needing to produce at exactly the right moment to win that race. Either way, it’s enough to put me off.

Mr Diamond looks to be correctly handicapped, as does Fastman and their prices will reflect that, so the focus turns to Two Blondes for Mick Channon and Ben Curtis.

This represents a drop in trip for the selection – an unwise decision to put him up in trip in the first place as he looked so progressive over this distance.

Forgiving his final run of last season which was one too many in the first place, he nearly won off a mark 86 in Epsom and this represents a weaker race, now down to 85.