Nap of the Day: Pour a little sugar on it honey!

For Friday's Nap Of The Day I'm heading to leafy Lingfield and a little Class 6 sprint handicap. An old acquaintance used to say something like 'little fish taste just as sweet' or thereabouts when considering potentially having a winner in what appears on the surface to be a modest affair; and if putting his best hoof forward this one could certainly oblige.

Action in Surrey kicks in at 13:02, it's an eight-race card, and the one I'm most intrigued by is the 16:05.

16:05 - Watermelon Sugar @ 10/3

When I hang up my keyboard and spend my declining years testing bacon-related products this is quite possibly not the nap I might want to be remembered for. But then again ...

It's a Class 6 handicap over 6f, there's just £3,140 to the winner, and 11 decidedly modest performers are slated to face the starter. However - on one standout piece of form, his last, one horse for me appeals as having a tremendous chance.

Watermelon Sugar is a six-year-old gelding by a Group 2-winning sprinter out of a mare by Derby winner New Approach. Nicely bred then, and not too many miles on the clock - 24 runs, five of which have been wins.

Last time at Wolverhampton 53 days ago in a similar affair (worth a tad more) this former Archie Watson-trained inmate finished third of 12, beaten a neck. That was off a mark of 60, and he's been raised a pound for that fine run in this afternoon's contest.

He's been with Suffolk handler Chelsea Banham since November 2022 and for that last spin in the Midlands he achieved a Racing Post rating of 69 - way above any efforts since the spring of last year and an indicator that perhaps another success, which would be his first since April, was at hand.

That success came off a mark of 63, quite cosily in the end, and if back in that kind of fettle as evidenced by that last appearance today's 61 should be well within compass. Did I say that that win was achieved over today's course and distance? Consider it said.

Our trainer has had two winners from four runners over the past fortnight - a magnificent 50% strike-rate - and today's pilot Joey Haynes was on them both. The circumstantial evidence, perhaps even a little stronger than that, is there. All we need now is for the cast to follow the script.

Nap Of The Day from Betfred Insights.