Although the Grade 2 Silviniaco Conti Chase is on this card, the ever-popular Lanzarote Hurdle is the most valuable race of the day with a prize fund of £100,000.

We go over two miles, five furlongs at Kempton Park for this event with ten hurdles being in the way as the field progresses. 19 of them have stood their ground and so we have ourselves a proper Saturday betting race.

Going into Friday evening there was good money reported for Impose Toi and Nemean Lion. There was also appreciable each-way support for Mark Of Gold, Wonderwall and Samuel Spade.

We’re good to soft heading into Saturday and we’ve taken that into account along with distance, weights, form, improvement/regression rates and other factors to leave these six horses on our shortlist: 

Main Contenders

Hermino AA

Gary Moore’s seven-year-old is by Sinndar and he’ll be hoping some of that flat racing class can come through on a course such as this.

Hermino AA is 2-5 over hurdles to date, his latest run being a fair third at Cheltenham back in December with this track perhaps just suiting him a little better.

The distance shouldn’t bother him, in fact he was tired over three miles four weeks ago and we should see a quicker finishing burst from him this time around over 2m5f.

Impose Toi

This is the favourite going into the race and that fact is hardly surprising. Impose Toi is a typically talented French import for top owner JP McManus, with Nicky Henderson in charge of his conditioning.

That means a shorter than ideal price is probably guaranteed, though to be fair his form is where you’d want it to be also.

Only a six-year-old, this improver had won three of five British races going into his premier handicap task at Ascot three weeks ago and there, he was unlucky. He made mistakes at the final two flights which definitely cost him the win and he is up only 3lbs for the effort.

King Alexander 

This is Nicky Henderson’s second string but he has a fine each-way chance in his own right. Another six-year-old, there is more to come from King Alexander and he won in good style at Exeter when last seen.

He’s up 10lbs for his last win, but it was back in November and no doubt he will have improved a fair bit since then.

Nemean Lion

High in the betting this week has been Kerry Lee’s Nemean Lion and we like his chances too.

Three from six over hurdles, he was handed a chance to impress in the Greatwood at Cheltenham back in November and though he could only manage 5th of fifteen that day, we reckon it was still an improvement on earlier runs and he will be better for this track and a 55-day break.

He’s most certainly on the right path as far as ability is concerned, though he does need to prove he can stay this trip. 

Samuel Spade 

Ben Pauling and Kielan Woods team up with Samuel Spade and there are whispers of a good run being expected from the young gelding.

Only five, in fact next month to be more precise, backers of Samuel Spade will have to balance up the obvious progression he will show at this age with the clear lack of experience it brings.

He won last time at Taunton but went sent to higher profile tracks so far, he has come up a little short.

Wonderwall

We’ll avoid all the obvious puns to be made regarding Peter Bowen’s well-named horse as some might say they are a little trying and they simply don’t go away.

What we’re bothered about is the horse’s form and that as a punter, he won’t let you down. True, Wonderwall’s one hurdle win was this time two years ago, but he was about to go up another level and win again before falling at the last on his subsequent run.

He did go to the Cheltenham Festival in March which didn’t suit, but if he is ready to do himself justice here, which of course can’t be guaranteed, then for us he is very well handicapped and dangerous at a big price.

Summary

Impose Toi needs to avoid mistakes while the solid one is arguably Nemean Lion, but the each-way steal could be WONDERWALL.

He is fit having gone over fences in November and he has now moved stables to Peter Bowen. If he’s close to the form he showed a couple of years ago, and we think he will be, then he is very well weighted to put in a big run.