Coral Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle – Kempton Park – Saturday 11th January

It may be a futile exercise looking ahead to this weekend’s racing, as surely most turf tracks will need the various forecasts to be drastically wrong to have even a small chance of going ahead.

But with the stated intention by the BHA to be flexible and potentially look at moving races/meetings to the Sunday, then it may still be worth looking through the ante-post markets as they will still be relevant when it comes to rescheduled races.

Plus, most people would take the opposite view, and pass it over until knowing more so it could be an opportunity to get ahead of the general curve somewhat.

The race that most takes the eye from an ante-post betting perspective is the Coral Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle at 3.18 at Kempton Park, as it will be one of the likely candidates to be saved if at all possible, and also features a horse available at 25/1 each-way that could be the right type for the race and will be fresher than most coming here.

Robbie Llewellyn had something of a breakthrough season as a young trainer last term and following a quiet time of it before Christmas this time around, there are some signs of the yard cranking into gear now.

This makes the 25/1 each-way about Llewellyn’s Titan Discovery with Bet365, Ladbrokes or Coral for 4 places a very tempting bet, well worth locking in for whatever eventuality this weekend.

The entries for the race feature plenty of horses who could be suited to this particular test, but most are priced up accordingly, and the one that sticks out like a sore thumb to me is Titan Discovery.

Notably progressive last season, including a win over 2m4f on soft ground and also an excellent run when getting going too late behind Boombawn over Saturday’s course and distance, Titan Discovery marked himself down to me as an ideal type for this race ever since that productive spring period.

Making his seasonal debut in the red-hot Silver Trophy at Chepstow’s October meeting, (you don’t need me telling you again how well that race has worked out since,) Titan Discovery has been absent since.

On the face of it that absence would be a slight worry, but following a recent winner it was suggested that the yard had experienced one or two things that have since been rectified, and I can’t for a minute think that Titan Discovery would be running here if it wasn’t considered to be a legitimate target, given the value of the race.

It might be that in keeping his powder dry, Titan Discovery has been given the best possible preparation, and at 25/1 each-way with Bet365, Ladbrokes or Coral, it wouldn’t take much on to make it a worthy 1-star * ante-post wager for WhichBookie.