Horse Racing Tips: Opera singing for success at Kempton

The winter weather has put paid to any jumps racing across Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, with the meetings at Leicester and Exeter having been abandoned. However, a double-header of all-weather action remains courtesy of Dundalk and Kempton.

My horse racing tips for Wednesday focuses on the card at Kempton and features a three-year-old debutant representing Charlie Appleby.

17:30 Kempton - Opera Ballo @ 1/2

Nine runners are due to enter the stalls ahead of the second race of the day on the all-weather at Kempton - a Division 1 Class 5 1m Maiden Stakes for three-year-olds and upwards.

Four of the runners have prior racecourse experience, but they have only achieved a particularly low form standard between them, and Charlie Appleby’s debutant OPERA BALLO has been found a suitable winning opportunity.

Appleby is 69-206 (33%) with his runners from Opera Ballo’s age-group at Kempton, and he clearly targets this January maiden. The Newmarket handler has won all five runnings of this contest going back to 2021, including through the subsequent 2024 2,000 Guineas winner Notable Speech.

The selection cost 600,000euros as a yearling, and is by Appleby’s world class performer Ghaiyyath. He is closely related to the useful French 6f turf/7.5f AW juvenile Dyptique, and is out of an unplaced but well-related dam.

Billy Loughnane takes the mount and he is 3-6 when riding for Appleby on the all-weather.

18:00 - Quai de Bethune @ 4/7

Nine runners are due to face the starter ahead of the second division of the Class 5 1m Maiden Stakes for three-year-olds and upwards on the all-weather at Kempton.

Nick Littmoden’s representative, Shihoku, sets the overall form standard on his stable debut having achieved a Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 89 when reaching a close second of five in a 7f juvenile maiden at Naas for former trainer Mick O’Callaghan back in July 2023.

He has been gelded and is wearing a first-time tongue-tie on his all-weather debut, but it is hard to be confident with the four-year-old returning from an offputting 571-day absence.

In the circumstances, the potential for improvement provided by the year younger QUAI DE BETHUNE is preferred, particularly as he will be representing the significant trainer and jockey combination of Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy.

Balding is 7-22 (32%) in the past 14 days, and he is 120-750 (16%) with his runners aged three on this course. Murphy is 63-273 (23%) when riding Balding’s three-year-olds on the all-weather.

Quai de Bethune cost 75,000euros as a yearling, and is by French 2,000 Guineas winner Persian King. He is out of an unraced dam, who is out of a half-sister to French 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes winner Ervedya.

The selection shaped like a potential improver when third of seven on his Sandown debut in September, achieving an RPR of 73, and he makes plenty of appeal from a likeable draw in stall four.

18:30 Kempton - Mr Ubiquitous @ 5/1

Finally, MR UBIQUITOUS makes plenty of each-way appeal in the 13-runner Class 5 1m three-year-old handicap, where he will be representing Harry Eustace with the 3lb-claiming jockey Kaiya Fraser continuing in the saddle.

The gelding only had to be pushed out to win comfortably after a 99-day break over this course and distance in October 2024.

Following a lesser effort at Southwell in December, he resumed his progression with a relatively close second of 12 to Studious at Wolverhampton just before the turn of the year.

Studious has since franked the form by winning going away at Newcastle and is now rated 12lb higher, so the well-drawn selection has decent form claims from a 2lb higher rating back at this venue.

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