It's hard to look past the favourite here with the Hobbs team in decent form and Keep Wondering a nice winner over 2 miles and 5 furlongs last time, that was in heavier ground but this ex 3 mile P2P winner looks progressive and has handled this better ground before so certainly not a horse that needs mud.

 

The next few in the betting don't greatly inspire confidence in terms of "win potential" with Wayfinder who has won Class 4 races off marks of 107 and 113 slowly coming to hand and possibly capable of picking up a small race but not great e/w place value, Hawthorn Cottage showed some promise last time but is also quite tight in the market in terms of a good e/w price and Mellow Ben, a danger on some solid Good ground form but one who may both need the run and also more Spring type ground.

 

So in terms of value we are looking at some more exposed Chasers to look for some each way value based on some back-form.

 

That leaves us with; Django Django who won this race in 2020 but who has failed to shine really since and although off a reduced mark as a result looks regressive, Storm Control who won off marks of 131 and 137 last season but who like its Yard (Kerry Lee) has struggled this season. The Yard have had a couple of well backed ones place recently and we keep waiting for them to fire, for sure they have some very nicely handicapped soft ground horses waiting to come out and certainly if Cheltenham is soft to heavy in March then Storm Control could be a very nice horse to track in a handicap and follow, but may be not quite ready yet.

 

Of more interest are possibly LANDOFSMILES for the Bowens, it drops in trip and ran well to this kind of Distance last time, like the Yard it is wonderfully inconsistent but will appreciate the better ground here and is back to its last win mark of 127 and could run a place off a reducing mark. Alan King is always a Trainer the watch here and THE DEVILS DROP is another inconsistent type but its best run last season was here over Course and Distance off a mark of 123, it also runs off that same mark today and like Landofsmiles looks a fair each way price.

 

My confidence given their inconsistency but with some clear form evidence that this is an occasion when they basically have "no excuses" not to deliver a run to those marks, is I would suggest worthy of shrapnel bets.