Thursday's Most Backed: Appleby yard hoping to strike with Aphelios

We head to Carlisle for today's most backed horse who runs in the six furlong sprint handicap at 15:45.

The horse in question is the Michael Appleby-trained Aphelios, an ultra-consistent 3yo with lifetime form figures of 322122.

Formerly trained by Roger Charlton, Aphelios recently changed hands and was moved to the shrew Appleby yard. He made his debut for his new connections last week where he put in a career-best performance to finish second, beaten just a nose, in a Class 4 Handicap at Chelmsford.

Aphelios switches back to turf today but he can run off the same mark of 75 as last week, and with winning turf form in the book on similar ground as he'll race on today he looks the one they all have to beat.

The market certainly agrees with punters taking the early 15/8 that was on offer, perhaps confident that the application of cheekpieces will bring about further improvement.