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Explore Safari at Kempton
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Classy ex-French hurdler to go in for Mullins
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Top weight looks good value
The lightly raced Sky Safari looks sure to be popular in this 1m class 4 fillies' handicap, particularly when you consider her only defeat from three starts came when tackling listed company.
However, the handicap she won when last seen at Wolverhampton in October wasn't much of a race and the time was ordinary as well.
This looks a stiffer task and, while she's clearly open to improvement, there's value elsewhere against her.
The one I landed on was Atlantis Blue, who won twice last season and then had little go right on her two other subsequent starts in 2024.
She blew the start at Sandown through no fault of her own on her penultimate outing (blindfold was removed late) and then was hampered early on Wolverhampton on her final run of the year.
Her two wins stack up reasonably well on the clock and she could still be a fairly handicapped filly from a mark of 74.
Kopeck De Mee has made just two starts since joining the Wille Mullins yard from France and his most recent one when second in a competitive handicap hurdle at Aintree was most eye catching.
Ridden much more patiently than the all-the-way winner that day, the five-year-old finished with a rattle and was only beaten a neck, likely to have won in another 20 yards or so.
He racked up a hat-trick of hurdle wins when trained in France, including in listed company, and that most recent Aintree outing suggests he can more than hold his own in what isn't the deepest of Grade 2 contests.
Willie Mullins also fields Gala Marceau, who ran a little flat when only third at Warwick in February and then came down in the Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham when last seen.
She'll likely be the main threat if coming back to something approaching her best, but on what we've seen so far this season there has to be a slight doubt about that and I've no issue in taking her on with her less-exposed stablemate.
This 7f handicap looks an open affair and top weight Ahlain remains relatively unexposed after just eight starts.
This well-bred daughter of Too Darn Hot was good enough to finish fourth in listed company at Lingfield last March, that coming on the heels of a comeback success in a handicap over this C&D in February.
She rather blew out in another listed contest at Carlisle in the summer having had a breathing operation but posted a much-improved effort back in a handicap on her only other start of the season, finishing second returned to the all-weather at Lingfield.
James Tate's filly has reserved her best efforts to date for synthetic surfaces and she can clearly go well fresh, which makes her a tempting each proposition at 13/27.50.