Horse Racing Tips: Officer can take command at Newmarket

The jumps season is ready to kick into gear but Flat racing still dominates proceedings on Wednesday, with three of the four meetings across Britain and Ireland taking place on the level.

Worcester kicks things off, while Newmarket and Navan also take place in the afternoon. An intriguing eight-race all-weather card at Kempton then follows in the evening. We have three strong fancies on Wednesday and amongst them is a Newmarket runner for Charlie Appleby, who could be well suited by the switch to handicaps.

15:33 Newmarket - Commanding Officer @ 11/8

This looks like an interesting race and there’s a substantial prize pot of £40,000 on offer. It has only attracted a field of four and Charlie Appleby’s COMMANDING OFFICER should find this kind of test very suitable on handicap debut.

The son of Teofilo ran a nice race when third on debut at Haydock and the winner has boosted the form by finishing second in a Group 2 and winning a Listed race impressively.

He was slightly disappointing at York after that, when a little outpaced, but just managed to hold off the fast-finishing runner-up when upped to a mile on his most recent start back at Haydock and appears to be going the right way.

Handicaps could facilitate further improvement with that in mind and an opening mark of 81 is very fair.

Toby Moore takes 7lb off and trainer Charlie Appleby is in excellent form at the moment, operating at a strike-rate of 33 per cent in the last couple of weeks. Appleby rarely fails to have a winner at Newmarket and this horse is his sole representative.

16:08 Newmarket - Maybe Not @ 2/1

A very competitive field of eight has been declared for this race and the most intriguing runner is Ralph Beckett’s MAYBE NOT.

This thoroughly consistent mare has three wins and three placed efforts to her name in just eight starts and could still be ahead of the handicapper.

She remains unexposed over a mile and her sole attempt at the trip resulted in victory. Maybe Not was slow to get into her stride that day but recovered well to score by a length-and-a-quarter, seeing the trip out well.

One of her better performances to date came in a very valuable Class 2 event at York and she stayed on well to finish second over 7f. Returning to winning ways at Southwell after that, a 3lb rise shouldn’t cause this progressive filly too many problems.

19:10 Kempton - Estmrar @ 11/1

ESTMRAR has only had four starts so far and is set to run in a handicap for the first time here. There’s lots to like about his profile and he showed plenty of promise when finishing second by a short head on debut at Chelmsford in November.

Connections then sent him to Meydan for a couple of starts and he made a winning return to Britain when scoring at Chelmsford off the back of a 209-day break in August. The runner-up provided a boost to that form by winning his next start impressively.

It’s unlikely that we’ve seen the best of him just yet and handicaps could facilitate further improvement. A mark of 87 shouldn’t be beyond him and he’s entitled to step forward from his latest effort.

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