Lingfield Placepot: Thursday December 6

Today's Placepot comes from Lingfield

At the time of writing, Lingfield is the only track guaranteed to race, so that's where we're off to for our Placepot perm.

11:55 - Hardly the most inviting leg, a two-year-old seller with few having much in the way of solid form. The only real exception would be Divine Angel, a dual winner around a mile already, admittedly on very different surfaces to this. For insurance, we'll take Dream About You, who nearly made the places in a C&D event last time despite pulling hard; if she's more settled she should end up thereabouts.

12:25 - This is a handicap you wouldn't normally wish to bank on, but through sheer paucity of options it looks like we may have to. The horse we're taking is Shaunas Spirit, who has been generally going the right way and looks to have snuck in under the radar somewhat following a relatively rare substandard run last time.

12:55 - Habitual slow starter Muhandis has seemingly found his niche on the all-weather in recent months, building up a fairly consistent profile which makes him a natural choice for our perm. Second in is The Noble Ord, who is interesting from the mark he's dropped to and ran an encouraging race over this trip at Wolverhampton last time, finishing in a manner which would suggest he may be even better suited by Lingfield.

13:25 - As the market would appear to suggest, Martial Art and Maid A Million hold far stronger claims than the rest and our choice from a Placepot point of view centres on them, too. Martial Art blew a good chance last time by pulling much too hard, so our preference is for the more solid Maid A Million.

13:55 - This is a fairly competitive little nursery, though the likes of Small Fury and Loki's Strike would probably be better for win purposes as both have some question marks over them. A better selection would be Marmot Bay, who has plenty of polytack form over this trip. She's admittedly been winning in plating company of late, but there's a nursery second off a 4 lb lower mark in there too, while her front-running style will serve her just as well here as it has at Wolverhampton. The fact she's moved from Jamie Osborne to Alastair Lidderdale can be taken as incidental, as it took place just last Friday and there's unlikely to be a noticeable difference in Marmot Bay either way at this stage.

14:25 - Though easily the best race on the card, this concluding handicap does suffer in the same way as many high-end events at this time of year in that it's predominantly exposed sorts that end up in them. There is one clear exception, though, and he'll act as a closing banker. Mezzotint has been going the right way throughout his career to date, winning a strong race at Windsor when last seen in June. He's also a dual winner on polytrack and, assuming he's fit enough to do himself justice, won't be far away.

Selections:
11:55 - 2, 7
12:25 - 4
12:55 - 2, 6
13:25 - 8
13:55 - 1
14:25 - 4
= 4 lines