Simon Holt previews Saturday's feature action at Newbury and has two best bets - including Little Kim in the Weatherbys Super Sprint.
Recommended Bets: Saturday
2pts win Projection in 3.00 Newbury at 4/1
2pts win Little Kim in 3.35 Newbury at 6/1
Newbury's Weatherbys Super Sprint Stakes always produces a maximum 25-runner field chasing some excellent prize money but, as ever, there is a wide range of abilities on show in Saturday's renewal in which LITTLE KIM can prove the class act.
The weights for this race are determined by purchase prices at the sales but a recent Group Three victory at Deauville requires Karl Burke's promising filly to carry a penalty and concede weight all round.
I think she could well be up to it: in the French race, Little Kim ran on really strongly in the final furlong off what looked a fairly steady early pace and, eased down close home, was value for more than her length winning margin over the Wesley Ward-trained Chelsea Cloisters and third-placed Shumookhi.
The latter made a quick return across the Channel to Vichy on Thursday, going under by three-quarters of a length to the James Tate-trained Second Generation with Michael Bell's Stage Play close-up in third.
Back in early June, Little Kim had little difficulty in beating Stage Play on her racecourse debut at Carlisle and, while running well next time, may just have been beaten by inexperience when a still creditable eighth behind Signora Cabello in the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot.
Lines of form involving Second Generation and Shumookhi suggest the selection could have just a little bit to find with the likes of Blame Roberta and Society Queen but this good, strong type from a yard which does exceptionally well with two-year-olds and whose half sister Out Of The Flames finished third at the Breeders Cup last year, looks potentially much better.
Tin Hat, fifth in the Windsor Castle, and the Norfolk Stakes sixth Kinks also performed with credit at the Royal meeting and there is little between them on a clash at Bath very early on in the season, although Kinks, the winner that day, now receives 4lb.
Earlier, PROJECTION has his best winning chance for some time in the Group Three bet365 Hackwood Stakes.
Roger Charlton's five-year-old hasn't hit the target since his juvenile season yet has still developed into a high-quality sprinter, finishing second to Blue Point at Ascot last October and running well in all three starts this season including latterly when fifth to Merchant Navy in the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot.
A repeat of that form should be good enough to beat the surprise Wokingham winner Bacchus, who repeated last year's first-time-out win last month, and the genuine and consistent Yafta who was beaten by Above The Rest on the all-weather at Newcastle three weeks ago.
The 'unknown' runner is Equilateral who bolted up from Foxtrot Lady (successful most recently in a hot handicap at the Newmarket July meeting) at Doncaster in May but then blew out in the Commonwealth Cup.
Apparently, there were excuses for that disappointing effort but this is a recovery mission and, in any case, the Charlie Hills-trained colt (rated 7lb inferior to Projection) will still need to improve.
Preview posted at 0945 BST on 20/07/2018
