Kaka fancied to score at York

Gabrial’s Kaka caught the eye last time out and looks weighted to run a huge race in the Clipper Logistics Handicap at York today (3.05).
The Richard Fahey trained gelding started of the campaign on the upgrade, finishing a fine sixth in the Lincoln at Doncaster before going on to land the 23-runner Spring Cup at Newbury in good style off a mark of 95.

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 was then given far too much to do when 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.

Gabrials Kaka was then not at his best in his next two starts, before bouncing back to form last time out at Sandown when a strong finishing third to Velox.

The son of Jeremy was set a mammoth task to make up a huge amount of ground by Frankie Dettori, and it was an effort which suggested Gabrial’s Kaka would be more than capable of winning races off his current mark of 103 when ridden a bit more positively.

The other horse to make my shortlist in a wide-open contest is Navajo Chief.

The Tim Jarvis trained gelding is a four time winner at the venue, and three of those successes have come over this afternoon’s trip of a mile.

In the last of those back in May, Navajo Chief battled on tenaciously to beat Fort Bastion by a short-head off a mark of 97 in a listed class 1 contest.

The seven-year-old has not been at his best in two starts since, but is now just 2lb higher in the weights and is reunited with jockey Kieren Fallon who knows how to get the best out of him.

Navajo Chief is also 1lb lower than when winning a listed class 1 handicap over course and distance 15 months ago, and that gives the son of King’s Best every chance from a handicapping perspective in this class 2 contest on the pick of his form.