Rhubarb Bikini – 3.35 Chelmsford – 1 mile Handicap – 25/1 Bet365 – 1.5 points each way.
This 6 runner field is dominated by favourite, Khatm, who has been a highly progressive performer over the past two months winning 6 races and seeing his mark increase from 53 to 84. He has moved up from class 6 events to win in a class 4 last time out and ventures into Class 3 territory for the first time today. He has been battling to victory the last twice and I feel his elevated handicap mark is catching up with him.
With question marks about a couple of the others it may pay to side with the outsider Rhubarb Bikini. He is still unexposed having just the 6 starts to date that include 2 wins.
Both wins were on the Polytrack surface, once at Lingfield, with the other at today’s Chelmsford track. His last two runs were on Tapeta, so a return to Polytrack is very much in his favour.
He has his seasonal reappearance 13 days ago for a new Trainer and ran well enough over 1m 2F. That looked like a classic pipe opener over a trip too far and return to his favoured 1 mile will be hugely beneficial.
I’m sure he will come on for the run and in this small field will get the run of the race out in front.
Rhubarb Bikini has a great chance for victory under ideal conditions, and even if Khatm does prove he is still ahead of the handicapper we can still nick a nice quarter odds 2nd place.
At 25/1 he is massively overpriced and should really be nearer a 6/1 shot and I therefore recommend 1.5 points each way.
