The Inside Track on the Mares’ Hurdle

Quevega has won this race 25 times in a row, and she is odds-on to make it 26. She hasn’t been seen in public since dotting up at Punchestown last April, but that won’t stop her army of fans steaming into any price they can get their hands on.

She’ll probably win but I would need vigorous encouragement to bet the moon to come up before midnight at 4/6, and I’m happy to look elsewhere for my bets on this boring heat.

Serene D’Ainay chased Quevega home last year and she is sure to go close again but, having been on at 66/1 in 2013 (I’m allowed to after-time because I was on win only and I had to buy a new telly because of the devastating gubbage), I’m happy to sit her out at current prices given that she has been scuffing around in soft-ground chases.

Most of the others are too slow to get out of each other’s way, so that leaves John Quinn’s likeable mare Cockney Sparrow.

The daughter of Cockney Rebel took a crashing fall when chasing home Annie Power last time, but she galloped loose afterwards and she’s had plenty of time to recover from that mishap.

She only has to repeat the form that saw her split My Tent Or Yours and Grumeti in the Fighting Fifth to challenge her fellow females here and, as a 13f winner on the flat, there might be more to come over this trip. She’s a right scrapper when she gets in a tussle (like most cockney birds) and she might have too might fight for the pampered Quevega if she gets upsides.

Finding an interesting rag is difficult because so many potential runners have alternative targets, but Legacy Gold could surprise a few if she is allowed to take her chance in this, rather than running loose in a handicap off 133.

She has only been beaten once in seven starts, and that was in a Cheltenham bumper when she might have needed the run, so it’s impossible to know just how good she really is.

Selection: Cockney Sparrow

Alternative: Legacy Gold