Kempton preview: Up In Lights to shine on handicap debut

Trainer James Fanshawe does well with his runners at Kempton, and Up In Lights can provide him with another success in the 1m handicap on this evening’s card at the Sunbury-on-Thames venue (20.40).

The Newmarket handler has a strike rate of just under 20 per cent at the track in the past 12 months, saddling 15 winners and 19 placed from 75 runners.

In Up In Lights he has a filly that created a good impression when winning on debut and looks to have got in lightly on her first venture into handicap company.

The daughter of Makfi raced wide in mid-division before coming with a late surge under a hands and heels ride from Tom Queally to land a 1m contest at Nottingham by a neck.

It was a most taking performance, and the front two pulled four lengths clear of the field to give the form a solid look.

The runner-up Pyjama Party has also come out and won since before finishing a solid second on her handicap debut off a rating of 84, and that suggests that Up In Lights is potentially very well-treated off an opening handicap mark of 80.

In the 1m 4 handicap that closes proceedings (21.10), Unex Modigliani can build on a promising run last time out to open his account.

The Derek Shaw trained gelding kept on from well off the pace to finish a never nearer 2 1/2 length fifth of 11 to Marital in a 1m 1f contest at Wolverhampton, leaving the distinct impression that his current mark of 60 was exploitable.