NAP of the Day: The case for Crystal Pier is crystal clear

Queen Of Christmas was disappointing at Carlisle on Wednesday, wasn't she? One to forget, that's for sure.

Hopefully it'll be a quick return to winning ways on Thursday, courtesy of one at the home of flat racing.

I've landed on CRYSTAL PIER for the finale at Newmarket on Thursday - a 0-80 fillies' handicap over a mile on the July Course.

Roger Varian's Silent City tops the market at time of publication and while she's got some strong form in the book, I think she's vulnerable today.

The four-year-old concedes a significant amount of weight to a promising field on her return to action following a 246-day layoff. That's a fair ask.

Luna Celeste is in receipt of well over a stone as Tom Clover's three-year-old makes her handicap debut. Her form isn't working out, for all she can't be completely ruled out.

Guess whose form is working out? Crystal Pier's.

Ralph Beckett's three-year-old, a half-sister to a couple of nice types including the Wathnan Racing-owned Serene Seraph, was very disappointing at two, but a year on she looks a different horse altogether.

On reappearance in a handicap at Wolverhampton last month, off a mark of 73, she opened her account by beating a previous winner in Lady Milton by a shoulder.

Horse Racing Odds

Then, under a fortnight later, she lined up at Windsor off a couple of pounds higher (although not in reality as Jack Dace was claiming five pounds) where she was just touched off by Lady Dora Mae for George Boughey.

In hindsight, that one was a good bit ahead of the handicapper, given she's gone on to finish runner-up off five pounds higher in a better calibre race at Nottingham before the narrowest of defeats in Listed company at Goodwood. She was raised another 14lbs for that.

Crystal Pier has to defy a rise of just four, which looks achievable in the context of the runner-up having, in theory, 20lbs in hand.

She looks the part and rates my NAP of the Day.

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