Wednesday Racing Tips: Lots of love for Valentine at Kempton

All-weather racing holds sway on Wednesday, with three meetings set to take place on artificial surfaces at Lingfield, Wolverhampton and Kempton.

Our focus is on the latter and among our Wednesday racing tips is a front-runner who may be able to get an uncontested lead.

18:30 Kempton - Ernie's Valentine @ 13/2

The one mile Class 4 handicap (6.30) is one of the more competitive races on Kempton’s card but one that may be worth taking a chance on is ERNIE'S VALENTINE.

David Loughnane’s representative has been running well for his new connections and a switch to Kempton may help him get his head back in front.

The Havana Gold gelding is a previous course winner whose hold up, come from behind style isn’t best suited to Wolverhampton or Southwell where he’s been running for his new yard. However, Kempton is a better venue for those tactics thanks to its cutaway at the two furlong marker and this five-year-old has come back down to her last winning handicap mark.

Furthermore, the booking of Oisin Murphy has to be considered a jockey upgrade and a drop back down to the mile is another factor in his favour. If Murphy can get a good position from a wide-ish draw in stall nine, the pair should go well and he’s worth supporting each-way with Betfred offering an extra place in the race.

The entirely unexposed one in the field is Elladonna who won over this course and distance in December but it’s a slight concern she hasn’t been seen since and this could be simply a prep for a turf campaign.

19:00 Kempton - Silver Trumpet @ 13/8

Four of the five runners in the Class 4 seven furlong handicap (7.00) lack a recent run and they could have their work cut out to get the better of the hat-trick seeking SILVER TRUMPET.

He left his two-year-old turf form a long way behind when beaten just a length on the back of an absence at Lingfield in February and he’s not looked back since, winning over course and distance before another narrow-margin success at Southwell subsequently.

He only seems to do just enough when hitting the front and that has handcuffed the handicapper to some extent with how much he can go up in the weights.

After his 2lb rise for his course-and-distance success, he’s only gone up 4lb for the Southwell win and there could be even more to come if he can settle better in the early stages of this contest.

Expect him to get a nice tow into the race from dual course winner Mr Baloo on his outside and his fitness may be the key edge in the closing stages against three rivals that have been off for six months and another that hasn’t been seen since early January.

20:00 Kempton - Zoran @ 12/1

One that may be able to get an uncontested lead at Kempton is ZORAN a little later on the card. All his best form has come when aggressively ridden and he had an excuse when disappointing at Wolverhampton last time.

He’s the only confirmed frontrunner in the line-up and he’s gone close in two of his all-weather starts this winter.

With the likelihood he’ll bounce back from the low-key run last time, it’s possible this seven-year-old will be hard to catch in the penultimate race on the card.