Timeform UK SmartPlays: Tuesday January 8

One of today's SmartPlays comes from Chepstow

We're providing a SmartPlay from each of today's three UK meetings.

We kick off in Leicester's opener, a two-mile novice hurdle which the market suggests will be between Pine Creek and Irish Buccaneer.  We're going to go one step further, pointing towards Irish Buccaneer's lack of experience to make Pine Creek a confident selection. He comes from the same line as most of trainer John Ferguson's stock, enjoying a sound Flat career with Godolphin before switching to hurdles, while his debut in this sphere was certainly very encouraging. Easy to back at Folkestone, Pine Creek came from an unpromising position to lay down a strong challenge approaching the last, only to weaken out of things. He'll be sharper today and is likely to take plenty of beating.

The ground at Chepstow is reported to be marginally less testing than on Saturday, but even so it's likely to be a slog in the 13:55 over three miles of the hurdles course. A slog is just what the Martin Keighley-trained Always Bold needs and when you add in his recent form he becomes a very interesting contender. Near-useful at his best, Always Bold slipped in the weights earlier this season to a career-low 94 before winning at Fontwell in October. His next run was arguably even more encouraging, as he dealt surprisingly well with a drop back to two and a half miles to finish second to another in-form sort at Uttoxeter on New Year's Eve. In off the same mark today and back over a more suitable trip, Always Bold looks enticing at the prices on offer.

As promised, our final selection comes from Wolverhampton, in their six-furlong handicap for three-year-olds at 15:25. As you can probably imagine, it isn't the strongest race of its type, to the extent that the mildly progressive Loulou Vuitton could hold the key to the whole race. She's been going forward with each run, experience seemingly the decisive factor given her tendency to break sluggishly on a couple of occasions thus far, looking much sharper in that regard wearing a hood for the first time on her handicap debut at the end of last month. The Brian Baugh yard haven't been among the winners for a while, though a good few have run well at unflattering prices in recent weeks so it seems only a matter of time before that's rectified and Loulou Vuitton could be the one to do it.

Timeform UK SmartPlays

Back Pine Creek @ 2.166/5 in the 12:30 Leicester
Back Always Bold @ 8.615/2 in the 13:55 Chepstow
Back Loulou Vuitton @ 6.05/1 in the 15:25 Wolverhampton