A sensible racing maxim says you should never back a horse to do something he's never done before. But you won't get much out of life if you only do sensible things and I prefer to believe that a horse will cope with most ordinary conditions until there's evidence to the contrary.
For that reason, I like Soleil Fix (2.15) at Huntingdon, even though he's racing round a right-handed circuit for the first time. The Racing Post's tipster has basically put a line through him for only this reason, which seems reckless to me. After all, he's won three times over fences round Fontwell, which is a figure of eight track, so he's raced right-handed for part of each of those wins. And he's got the best recent form in the race, but he's 11-2 on Betfair. Go figure.
Kingston Lane (12.25) is a fair bet at 4-1 for Chepstow's opening maiden hurdle. Carl Llewellyn's charge won two bumpers round here last year before being well beaten in the Champion Bumper at the Festival. There was absolutely no shame in that and he'd be unlucky to come up against animals of similar quality here.
Those who think evening all-weather racing is just betting fodder should have a look at Kempton's card tonight, when there are a couple of races that would grace any midweek meeting. Polytrack specialist Beat The Bell (7.20) can land the big handicap. Three times a winner on Polytrack recently, he flopped on Fibresand last time but deserves the highest respect back on this surface.
