Kempton racing betting preview: Bash the bookies with Bivouac in the Lanzarote Hurdle
After a superb couple of days’ racing over the festive period at Kempton, jumpers return to the rain-soaked Sunbury track on Saturday.
Pride of place in the seven-race card is the Lanzarote Hurdle (2.35pm).
The race looks typically competitive with 11 runners set to go to post and bookmakers scratching their heads with 9/2 co-favourites of three.
Unowhatimeanharry is one of those fancied to trouble the judge.
He is returning to handicap company after completing a hat-trick in the Grade Two three mile novices’ hurdle at Cheltenham in mid-December and should go well.
There does not look to be a great deal between him, Ibis Du Rheu and BIVOUAC, but it is the latter that I am sweetest on.
While five-year-old Ibis Du Rheu will have his supporters, in part due to his half-brother Saphir Du Rheu’s victory in this race two years ago, he still has a lot to prove and I am not willing to play the guessing game.
All of Bivouac’s wins have come when going right-handed, including his latest triumph at Huntingdon.
He likes it at Kempton, as do many of Nicky Henderson’s runners, and will relish the soft ground. Get on at 9/2 with Betway.
The preceding chase (2.00pm) will not have many runners and it looks to be a battle between seven-year-old PTIT ZIG and 13-year-old Wishfull Thinking. I think youth will prevail.
Ptit Zig fell in the shadow of Al Ferof in the closing stages of the Peterborough Chase last time, but before that he was narrowly beaten by Willie Mullins’ Vautour, who ran such a cracker in the King George a few weeks ago.
He might just have the edge against the hugely likeable but ageing Wishfull Thinking.
Pointers
Ptit Zig, 2.00pm, Kempton
Bivouac, 2.35pm, Kempton