Gabrial’s Kaka each-way value in wide open Cambridgeshire

Coral are paying five places on today’s Betfred Cambridgeshire at Newmarket (3.50) and that makes Gabrial’s Kaka looks decent each-way value in a wide open contest.
The Richard Fahey trained looked a handicapper going places at the start of the season when finishing an eye-catching sixth in the Lincoln at Doncaster before going on to land the 23-runner Spring Cup at Newbury.

The four-year-old showed a smart turn of foot in the latter to beat Spa’s Dancer with more in hand than the 1/2 lengths winning margin suggests and the form has a solid look to it.
Gabrial’s Kaka was then given a shocker of a ride by Jamie Spencer when held-up miles off the pace before running on strongly to go down by just 3/4 of a length to Youartisonfire in a 16-runner contest at Haydock off a rating of 101, before failing to handle the tight turns of Chester when a well beaten fourth of six to Noble Mission in the Group 3 Huxley Stakes.
Since then the son of Jeremy has run better than the bare result suggests in three starts.

In the first of those Gabrial’s Kaka came a never nearer 17th of 28 to Field Of Dream in the Royal Hunt Cup having again been given plenty to do and encountering trouble in-running.
Gabrial’s Kaka was then set an impossible task before staying on strongly to finish a never nearer 4 1/4 length third of 13 to Velox at Sandown, and followed that up with a solid staying on fifth of 19 to Short Squeeze having lost vital ground when slowly away.

The latter effort suggested that Gabrial’s Kaka was well worth a try at today’s 1m 1f trip, and the booking of Pat Smullen to do the steering looks a big plus in a race which should be run to suit.

The other horse to make my shortlist in an ultra-competitive contest is the Ralph Beckett trained Niceofyoutotellme.

The five-year-old has a good record when running fresh, as he showed when overcoming trouble in-running to beat Ajamany in an 18-runner contest over course and distance on seasonal reappearance back in May.

The son of Hernando then ran very well to finish ninth of 28 in the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot and was far from disgraced last time out when finishing in midfield at Goodwood.
Connections have since given Niceofyoutotellme a nice 60 days break to freshen-up, and the gelding looks big player on the pick of his from now returned to the scene of his last success.