Daily Racing Multiple: Crisford can be our funky Mister on Saturday

• Further inspections for Lingfield and Chelmsford on Saturday

• Baahill can make an impact on debut with improving Mr Funky Monkey

• Today's two Chelmsford selections pay out 44/1 on the Sportsbook multiple

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A case of keeping it simple with a Simon selection

Back Baahill @ 4.03/1 in the 15:45 at Chelmsford

Saturday could be a completely blank day, and at the time of writing that was the outlook. With the two further inspections I am chancing Chelmsford being on, as that looked the most likely.

One of my punting golden rules is rarely backing and siding with a Mark Johnston runner, or never and that mantra comes into play for the 15:45 as the Middleham yard have the odds-on favourite Hey Lyla, who rated 81 sets a good standard but she has had six goes to win a race and she's had a chance to earn that figure. And with a couple of short price defeats in-running, she's quite easy to pass by.

The Simon and Ed Crisford training machine has been firing in a few winners and are 3-9 at 33% in the last two weeks and are 4-22 at Chelmsford this season showing a level stakes return of +6.50 - which isn't bad as a lot of the yard's runners can go off at short prices.

His sire Kingman is 18% and 40% win and placed for all the All-Weather tracks although it does dip at the Essex circuit at 11 and 36. His dam Pirouette was trained by Hughie Morrison and matured into a three-figure horse, but she did run well on her debut to finish second (and Morrison would hardly ever train a juvenile newcomer to win) and there's enough in the pedigree to suggest she can race well off the shelf.

Harry Burns claims some weight too and that can offset some of the fillies' allowance that Hey Lyla gets. Another market rival Bluff has had a run, but the timefigure wasn't spectacular from a 5f debut.

Can Monkey do the business in Essex?

Back Mr Funky Monkey @ 9.08/1 in the 16:15 at Chelmsford

Even the most ardent of optimistic racing fans would struggle to find anything that vaguely resembles a good race on the card today, and the 16:15 is full of horses that might struggle to run past their own shadow. Trying to hone my betting and picking horses with recent winning form at shorter prices in low grade handicaps is something I am searching for and trying to pull away from, and Mr Funky Monkey might be able to improve a little following a brighter run recently.

The 3yo showed very little in his first three starts in Maiden company, but he has improved in two handicap efforts and shaped well enough over CD in November after a lay-off of 454 days. He was keen and stayed on, and certainly improved again to finish closer at the start of the month - again over track and trip and met some trouble.

He looks as if he is ready for a step up to 6f, but I do like horses that stay well here. He remains unchanged from 46 and looks overpriced at 9/1.

December winners:

Harb 7/2 Won
Hiddenvalley Lake 5/2 Won
Tarjamah 5/2 Won
Manaafith 7/4 Won
Coolbane Boy 2/1 Won