Nap of the Day: 9/4 debutant leads the way on Saturday

I'm back in the hotseat after a couple days off, hoping to pick up from where I left off earlier in the week - with back-to-back winners at 11/2 and 3/1.

Selected to land the Nap of the Day hat-trick on Saturday is a chase debutant I fancy could have a lot in hand off his current mark.

First and foremost, a warning. This selection is also declared to run at Carlisle on Sunday, so there's a chance he'll be declared a non-runner. However, that's not guaranteed and I like his chances so much that I'm running with it anyway.

The horse in question is LEADER IN THE PARK for Ben Pauling.

He fetched an eye-watering £250k at the sales in February last year, following a 56-length victory in a PTP over in Ireland. The race fell apart, with only two of his two of his eight rivals completing, but he was arguably going to win anyway.

He also has a beautiful pedigree. The six-year-old is by Walk In The Park and a half-brother to dual Grade 1-winning chaser Benefficient, who was rated as high as 157 during his career for Tony Martin. He won the defunct Turners' (formerly known as JLT, registered as the Golden Miller) Novices' Chase at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival.

It's fair to assume he was bought with fences in mind and that anything he achieved over hurdles would have been seen as a bonus.

He didn't achieve much, to be frank. A promising second on debut here at Ascot last November was followed by a bitterly-disappointing sixth over the same course and distance the next month.

Sixty one days later he proved much too good for a horse now rated 120 in a Doncaster maiden - and he signed off for the season with an adequate fourth, beaten just over six lengths, in a competitive novice at Cheltenham.

I've since learned, via his trainer's stable tour with AtTheRaces, that the horse "wasn't quite right" last term, which makes it very easy to forgive that one poor run and suggests there ought to be a lot more to come.

Going by his win at Donny, a mark of 121 would be workable, if not generous even if he was staying over hurdles, so I suspect he could prove very well-handicapped over the bigger obstacles.

Sticking my neck on the line a bit, I fancy this could be a 135-rated chaser in about six months' time. He has huge potential and I'll be disappointed if he's not up to winning off 121 on his first venture into handicap company.

This isn't a bad race, but it's winnable at the same time. Bhaloo doesn't strike me as an obvious chaser and I don't believe he holds any secrets from the handicapper at present.

Samarrive brings experience to the table and if at his best, he'd be very dangerous. However, Paul Nicholls isn't in the best form and I'm guessing he'll need the run. What Path has been moved around a lot of late and is very hard to advise in a race of this quality.

The selection's stablemate Bad is interesting, but he's always promised more than he's delivered and was particularly poor at the end of last season. He also doesn't appeal as an obvious chaser.

As far as I'm concerned, this looks a fantastic opportunity for Leader In The Park to get off the mark at the first attempt over fences - and I'd fancy him just as strongly, if not more, if he goes to Cumbria instead. I'll be backing him either way.

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