23rd Mar 2012 | Horse Racing
Lingfield Tips: Even Stevens
An all-weather star winning 7 of his 10 races on artificial surfaces. Looks progressive and has tremendous early pace.
Several turf horses are making their seasonal debuts in the 2.55 Lingfield and none of them are attractive betting propositions. The likes of Blue Jack, Borderlescott and Noble Storm all had injury hit campaigns in 2011 and are avoidable after a long lay-off.
Oasis Dancer has won his last two at the track, including the Listed Cleves Stakes, but all his wins have come at six furlongs. At much more attractive odds, I’m going for the 5f specialist – Even Stevens.
He is a horse who thrives on the all-weather, with a record at the minimum trip of: 111113.
Most of those wins have come at Southwell, but he has also triumphed at Kempton so the polytrack surface should not be a disadvantage. He has tremendous early pace, which Robert Winston can use to get a good early position from stall 4.
Although he has several pounds to find on official ratings, his rivals might let him get an easy lead. If they don’t give this progressive horse the respect he deserves then he could surprise everyone at 22/1 with Stan James.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 14:54 23rd Mar, 2012 but subject to change
