Lingfield Preview: Varsovian set for another victory

Varsovian is in the form of his life at present and looks a worthy favourite to notch another success in the 6f handicap at Lingfield today (3.20).

The Dean Ivory trained gelding has shown improved form since going handicapping on the all-weather, winning three times and being placed twice in his last five starts.

Two of those victories have come over course and distance, over which Varsovian is unbeaten, and he won with more in hand than the winning margin suggests when scoring at the track by a nose on his penultimate outing.

The five-year-old had to be switched at a crucial stage to get a run and was only driven out by a confident Jimmy Quinn to get up right on the line.

Varsovian backed that up with a solid second last time out at Kempton over 7f, leading inside the last until being umable to find any extra close home.

The son of Refuse To Bend clearly found the trip to far, and the drop back to 6f this afternoon can see Varsovian return to winning ways.

In the 5f handicap (2.20), Triple Dream can take advantage of a drop in the weights to land the spoils now eased in grade.

The Milton Bradley trained gelding is a three-time course and distance winner who was last successful at Kempton in a class 4 contest last February off a mark of 81.

The 10-year-old has failed to make the frame in eight subsequent starts, but now drops down into class 5 company and runs off a mark of just 75.

That is 6lb lower than when last successful and gives Triple Dream major claims from a handicapping perspective.

Jockey George Baker has a 33% strike rate when teaming up with trainer Ed Dunlop in the last 12 months and that makes Gworn of obvious interest in the 1m 2f handicap (2.50).

The gelding was a consistent and progressive sort in 2013 when winning twice, with the last of those successes coming off a mark of 88 in a class 3 contest at Haydock.

The five-year-old went up to 90 for that success and finished a decent second off it to Capo Rosso in a class 3 contest at Wolverhampton last April.