Not much strength in depth in this opener and it looks to boil down into a match between two useful Flat sorts with one –
PURPLE KING having had experience over hurdles already and the other
Surrey Blaze arriving for his debut having had a tweak to his wind representing the powerful Skelton team. The former was unlucky to run into another good Flat type in Pacify at Southwell last time but is given the vote here over the Skelton representative who also done the tongue-tie for the first time. Irish raider
Bathiva may be better than he’s shown so far with
Connective likely to improve on his hurdling debut.
- Purple King
- Surrey Blaze
- Bathiva