Hi,
Please see my one tip for Wednesday’s racing:
Yaazaain – 4.45 Lingfield – 2 Mile Handicap – 20/1 888, Ladbrokes and Coral – BOG – 1 Point Each Way – 3 Places.
Nigel Hawke has his string in fine form and whilst he is more renowned for his jumpers, he also has a reasonable strike rate on the flat, especially when you consider he uses the flat as pipe-openers for many of his National Hunt campaigners.
Hawke sends the 6-year-old Yaazaain out in this 2-mile handicap and he has an interesting profile.
He started life in France on the flat with J E Hammond (owned by Hamdan Al Maktoum) and ran modestly in five outings, postmarking a high of 67.
Yaazaain moved to the UK with Nigel Twiston-Davies and was a bit in and out, suggesting he had issues and also wasn’t a natural over hurdles. He still postmarked in the 90’s three times from seven starts, so was reasonable.
He was sold onto Nigel Hawke who immediately did well in the summer with Yaazaain over chases, but then required a wind operation, and only returned to action in December 2021 for two runs (one flat, one hurdle).
Yaazaain will now be fit from those two runs, and I like that he returns to the flat here. The son of Iffraaj has only run twice on the flat since his three-year-old days in France and both of these were seasonal pipe-openers and were needed.
So today is the first real chance he has to show his ability in the UK since he was a big backward baby.
His mark is only 52 so looks nicely handicapped on his French form and I particularly like the booking of Rossa Ryan who has been used as a strike-winning jockey for this yard in the past.
At 20/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral, and 888 – BOG – 3 Places. I recommend 1 point each way.
He still looks value at 10/1.
