Betfred’s Owen McMahon picks out his best bet from all six meetings across the UK & Ireland on Wednesday 9 August 2023. 

Easily one of the more intriguing races on Wednesday is this novice contest at Kempton, which looks to my eye like a three-way affair between the penalised Godwinson, Measured Time and BOTANICAL.

I have respect for the former two, especially the once-raced Godolphin colt who rates a major danger, but it’s Roger Varian’s three-year-old son of Lope De Vega that gets the verdict.

He made an eye-catching racecourse debut behind a now 89-rated type over 7f here back in June, before following up with an easy victory at Hamilton just 20 days ago.

That form is admittedly less impressive, but still the horse he beat was a former winner who ran okay off a mark of 83 in a handicap at Glorious Goodwood last week – and ultimately the selection did it with plenty in hand.

This race on Wednesday evening certainly represents the toughest of Botanical’s short career so far, but there’s many reasons to be positive about his chances.

I would say the 1m trip looks about right for this horse at this stage of his career, whereas William Haggas’ Godwinson already looks like 1m2f+ is his bag. I don’t imagine the drop in trip will suit the latter whatsoever.

Measured Time is, as I’ve already said, a big threat, but you can’t escape the fact that he missed his juvenile season and has been off the track for 189 days following his debut, so as special as he could be I’m happy enough to take him on.