Wolverhampton Preview: Serenity Spa can sprint to success

Serenity Spa has some strong form to her name and looks decent value to defy top weight and land the 6f handicap at Wolverhampton this evening (7.40).

The Tony Carroll trained mare was unsuited by the drop back to 5f last time out at Chelmsford City when getting badly hampered and finishing just seventh of 10 to Zac Brown in a class 3 contest.

Prior to that the five-year-old had posted two solid efforts and which entitle her to the utmost respect now now dropped into class 4 company and put back over 6f.

In the first of those, Serenity Spa ran a blinder to finish a 2 3/4 lengths sixth of nine to Intransigent in a 6f Listed contest at Linngfield off an official rating of 81.
The daughter of Excellent Art backed that up with a win over 6f at Dundalk when staying on strongly to score by a head off 81, and three of the next six home have come out and won since to give the form a decent look.

Although Serenity Spa is now 4lb higher in the weights, the form of those races reads extremely well in the context of this contest and she is a a strong travelling sort who should get a decent pace to aim in this with the trailblazing Dissent in the line-up.

Kakapuka has been given a massive chance by the assessor and can take advantage of a career-low mark to land the 7f handicap (6.40).
The Anabel Murphy trained eight-year-old is a dual winner on the all-weather surface, with the last of those successes coming in a class 5 contest at Kempton 11 months ago when making all and running on strongly to score by 1 1/2 lengths off a mark of 66 in the hands of today’s rider George Baker.

The gelding went on to finish a decent third to Strong Man off 70 at the same venue, again when ridden by Baker, and also ran well on the turf at Brighton last June when a neck-runner-up off 67.

Kakapuka has not been in the same form since and failed to trouble the judge in his last four starts.

However, that has resulted in a marked drop in the weights and the son of Shinko Forest is now able to race off just 59 in this class 6 contest.

That is 7lb lower than when last successful in a higher grade, and gives Kakpuka a huge chance from a handicapping perspective.