Flat season bets Borderlescott Sprint Trophy (3:15 Musselburgh) - this looks a fairly strong conditions race as most of these have previously won in class 2 (Longroom the only exception), several were in good form when last seen and 4 of the 8 are c&d winners. Paul Midgley is responsible for 4 of the 8 runners, and it is one of his runners CAPTAIN COLBY that I have backed despite the fact that he comes out only 4th best at the weights, but there are enough reasons for me to think he has a good chance of finishing in first 3 at least. Midgley won this race two years ago when he had 3 of the 7 runner field, two of his runners were joint favourites but it was the unconsidered Desert Law that won at 14/1. That’s not a surprise with Midgley, as he is one of those trainers whose 2nd/3rd strings generally do better than first string. Here at Musselburgh, there have been 22 races where he had more than one runner, he won 6 of the 22 races but 5 of the 6 were with by 2nd/3rd string. Captain Colby has finished ahead of both the market leaders before, although his form with El Astronaut was 3 years ago, before the latter showed big improvement last season. Selection beat the stablemate Tarboosh over c&d last autumn. One concern for Captain Colby would be if the ground is too quick, he is 5 from 9 on good going but only 1 from 9 on good to firm. Merhoob could also run well as he has the fitness advantage over all his rivals but his improvement has been on all weather and needs to prove that he can do the same on turf. Midgley’s 3rd string Tanasoq also isn’t out of this despite being a big price.
Captain Colby, 1 pt e/w @ 6/1
Good luck.
