JOLIEVITESSE AN ABLE ALTERNATIVE

Things improved on Friday with Alben Star paying out the fortnightly blog at 7/1. Richard Fahey is simply a master trainer and this horse is readied for the AW Sprint Championship every year with his form figures in the race now reading 121.

I always knew that Man Of Harlech was a good deal better than he showed on his last two outings and he raced more kindly in a first-time hood, though there is no pay-out for fourth. He can win a good ten-furlong handicap on turf.

I had hoped that Aldeburgh would go in the last at Kempton on Saturday, a modest handicap over a mile and three furlongs. Jim Old has decided against it and I don’t mind too much because the alternative plan is a two-mile hurdle on good ground or better. He will stay the trip on proper ground and I feel it was a mistake to run him in a bog last time.

Now that he is an absentee at Kempton, it may be worth siding with Karl Burke’s JOLIEVITESSE, who was a good second here last time. Burke is a canny operator but you have to know how to catch him at the right time. This Kempton meeting is one of those times and it is worth looking at his runners very closely.

There may be something at Cork tomorrow and I’ll give it straightaway on the line if there is. Otherwise the only other one to interest me from a betting point of view is MASTER OF FINANCE in the Rosebery at 2.50. I have no idea what went wrong with him last season but he lost his way entirely after showing good handicap form in the spring.

Following Mark Johnston’s horses is tricky but they are running well and this is the type of handicap he wins before eyeing something at Epsom. Of course, if Master Of Finance isn’t up to it any more we can’t win but he will be a price on Saturday and I’d be inclined to take a risk to small stakes. He’ll either lead and fade or lead and win, so there probably isn’t much point in backing him each-way.