Singlefarmpayment

9th-Dec-2016

I am backing Singlefarmpayment here. I think that he is over-priced at 6/1.

The Milan gelding was a progressive staying novice hurdler last season. He won a three-mile novices’ contest at Southwell last December, and he stepped up on that to win a three-mile handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day off a mark of 125.

Both of those wins were on soft ground, but he proved that he could operate on better ground too when he ran a nice race on his debut this season, his chasing debut, to finish a close-up third in a novices’ handicap chase at Worcester in October, when he wasn’t suited by the sedate pace.

That was also his first run for Tom George.

He stepped up on that considerably last time at Ascot. The race was rendered less competitive than it might have been when three of the nine runners departed at the first fence, but Singlefarmpayment still ran a cracker to finish second to the progressive Beware The Bear.

He tracked the leader Dawson City from early before moving to the front at the fourth last. He and Beware The Bear had it between them from that point and, while he could not withstand the winner’s powerful finish, he still finished a good second, nicely clear of the third horse Aurillac.

He should progress from that, just his second run over fences and his second for Tom George, he goes on the ground and we know that he goes at the track. And the move to a stiffer track and the step up to three miles and one and a half furlongs should place an extra emphasis on stamina, of which he has plenty.

He is rated lower than three of his rivals, but he receives weight from them, 5lb and 8lb, and that puts him right in there among them. Add to that his potential for progression, and he is a bet at 6/1.

SINGLEFARMPAYMENT WON (ADV 6/1, SP 9/2)

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