NAP of the Day: Oisin’s on fire, is he on another flier?

Pragmatism rules for Wednesday's NAP. I'm heading south, on-fire jockey in the saddle, legendary trainer, and just hoping that the price holds up reasonably. Sounds straightforward enough, eh? Let's find out.

Yesterday's pick was frankly a disappointment, and ran too poorly to be true. He'll have his day.

Kempton 18:10 - Velvet Vega @ 5/6

This contest is a good-looking fillies maiden with some fine yards represented, but a there's a standout for me in this field of three-year-olds and that's John & Thady Gosden's VELVET VEGA.

She's by French Guineas and Derby hero Lope De Vega, out of a Sea The Stars mare, so beautifully bred. She's had one run so far, at the beginning of May, at the home of flat racing at Newmarket.

A 10f maiden saw her beat everything fairly decisively apart from William Haggas's Earth Shot, who hacked up by 5l. Velvet Vega seemed to get a little unbalanced in and out of the Dip and was well beaten.

However; for a first run against an opponent who had an outing under her belt already it was a fine effort, and it was a further 4.75l back to the third. The winner has gone on to finish a head second in a Goodwood Listed heat worth £40k, so this looks to be very sound form.

The excellent Benoit De La Sayette was in the plate at HQ, and champion jockey Oisin Murphy takes over tonight. He's motoring along at around a 25% strike-rate over the last fortnight and by my reckoning has had at least a winner on each of the last eight racedays. Remarkable.

She's sure to improve from Newmarket, this 1m 3f should suit just fine, and the trainer/jockey quality element is off the scale. She has a Godolphin daughter of Frankel in her way to an extent, Tribal Queen, but her debut run at Haydock, ironically under Murphy, didn't appeal to me at least as much as that of the selection.

With such inexperienced and unexposed types there could of course be huge improvers lurking - but I'm thinking that could well describe our selection too, and with just nine expected to start there should be no hard-luck stories and everyone will have a chance to work out a good trip, and come home to best effect.

My idea as to who will figure it all out best is Velvet Vega.