Nap of the Day: Gallant can be the hero on Monday

It's a visit to Lingfield's all-weather track for my Nap of the Day on Monday, as a three-year-old with big potential is fancied for an in-form yard.

Andrew Balding's string are in great nick. The Kingsclere handler may 'only' boast two winners from 16 runners in the past fortnight - a strike rate of 13% - but that ignores the six seconds, including 10/1 and 18/1 shots.

That bodes well for GALLANT, who can get his three-year-old campaign off to the perfect start at Lingfield on Monday.

The son of Hello Youmzain fetched €170k at a breeze-up in May last year, before a modest debut over six furlongs at Salisbury that August.

A month later he lined up on the all-weather at Kempton, over the same trip, and improved leaps and bounds to get off the mark at the second attempt, putting almost two lengths between himself and the nearest of his 10 rivals.

That's a very strong piece of form. The runner-up, West Acre, is rated 114 after winning three of his subsequent four starts, including Group scalps over in Meydan - while the third-placed So Darn Hot has won three of five, including a handicap at Lingfield last month off a mark of 87. He's six pounds higher today.

Given the amount of improvement between those first two runs, it's fair to suggest Gallant - who in my book has already posted a 90+ performance - could reach the three-figure mark in the first half of the new Flat season.

One of his rivals on Monday, Diablo Rojo, has already earned a rating of 90 after landing a decent novice at Redcar last summer before finishing sixth of 11 in the G3 Acomb Stakes at York a few weeks later.

However, I think that's inflated and the fact he wasn't seen since York and turns up here on reappearance with a first-time tongue tie after a wind op would be enough to put me off.

Simon & Ed Crisford are also going great guns at the moment and there's plenty to like about their Night Of Thunder colt Don Pacifico, but his form just isn't comparable to the selection's at this stage.

Hello Zazman has a bit to find as far I'm concerned - while Pure Imagination, Sassy Sprezzatura, Luzon Prince and Maury are very hard to advise.

Gallant appears to have the standout piece of form and is open to as much, if not more improvement than any of his seven rivals. If he's ready to go after a 173-day layoff - his trainer's form offers optimism on that front - then he ought to take a bit of beating.

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