1:50 Newbury

1:55 Newbury - Imperial Leader (7/4) - 3pt win

 I really fancy this horse today and the reason for my confidence is largely down to the way in which the race is likely to unfold. Having looked through the runners I expect Maguire to get his mount to the front early and kick on. Proffeseur Emery is quite a head strong individual and I wouldn't be surprised if the first time hood lights him up resulting in a very fast early tempo. If that does prove to be the case, then this is going to turn into a real test and Imperial Leader should relish that prospect.

Despite the large field I believe there are only a few potential win candidates in the line up and I'm definitely not happy to take a short price on the King runner who has looked far from straight forward and is prone to crack under pressure, which could be a major issue on the uphill finish. Enrich is clearly a danger to my selection if he's in the same form as last time but that's far from certain to be the case and it looks like he's unlikely to fulfil his early promise. Given the fact that he's trained by Henderson, anything can happen though and I definitely wouldn't be surprised if this one went close. Finally we have the Balding horse Chilberta King and he may just prove to be the dark horse in the race. His form to date hasn't be amazing but he was a very nice horse on the flat and his jumping has improved with each run. He's been racing against better horses than his opposition today and if he's supported in the next few hours he may prove to be the value bet in the race. As things stand though, I'm more than happy to stick with Imperial Leader.