Sedgefield preview: Grams And Ounces weighted to follow-up

Grams And Ounces scored in impressive fashion last time out and can make light of a penalty to follow-up in the 2m 4f handicap hurdle on this evening’s card at Sedgefield (19.00).

The Adrian Wintle trained gelding was a useful sort in his prime when rated as high as 129, and took advantage of a drop in the weights to score a long overdue success at Stratford seven days ago.

After racing in mid-division, Grams And Ounces was driven to lead between the final two flights and was three lengths clear at the last when his nearest rival departed.

That allowed the eight-year-old to stride clear and score easily by 10 lengths, and it’s no surprise to see connections turn him out quickly under a 7lb penalty.

Grand And Ounces is due to race off a revised mark of 103 in feature races, so off 98 in this the son of Royal Applause is officially 5lb well-in at the weights.

That is going to make Grams And Ounces very difficult to beat if turning up in the same form, especially as he remains very well-treated on the pick of his form.

In the 2m 3f handicap hurdle (18.30), Strictly The One is a a fascinating contender given connections.

The gelding is trained by the shrewd Neil Mulholland who does extremely well with his rare runners at the venue.

Since 2013 he has saddled four winners from just 10 runners, and three others finished in the frame.

In Strictly The One he has a five-year-old who showed very little over hurdles last season but has been cut plenty of slack by the handicapper as a result.

Having been allotted an opening mark of 100, Strictly The One is now running off a rating of just 87 and comes into the contest having won on the level at Bath two starts back.

That win suggests that Strictly The One is potentially well-treated in this very weak class 5 contest, and another plus is that the son of Robin De Pres now gets the services in the saddle of Noel Fehily for the first time.

Fehily has a good strike rate when teaming up with the yard, and his booking suggests that connections mean business.

Selections:
17.00: Viens Chercher
17.30: Vayland
18.00: Alba King
18.30: Strictly The One (NB)
19.00: Grams And Ounces (NAP)
19.30: Alf The Audacious
20.00: Verko