Timeform UK SmartPlays: Thursday November 22

Our selection at Market Rasen may not have passed many by, but it is worth stressing how much looks to be going for Uxizandre in the 19-furlong novice hurdle at 13:10. We should all be familiar with the sort of profile Uxizandre boasts: he's a lightly-raced recruit from France that has been bought to race out of a top British yard (in this case that of Alan King). There's more to his selection than just the basics, though. His hurdling debut at Compiegne came on ground similar to what he'll face today, while he finished five lengths ahead of Ulysse Collonges that day, that one since winning three times in France and once (albeit fortuitously) at Wetherby for Chris Grant. Today's opposition would be no stronger, and Uxizandre is fully deserving of quotes around the even-money mark.

We've more than four hours to wait for SmartPlay number two (runs at 17:40), but it's arguably the strongest of our three. It's the Dean Ivory-trained Tropics, whose career might be only a couple of months old, but he looks set to progress to a useful level at least this winter on what we've seen so far. Runner-up here on his first two starts, Tropics created a deep impression when getting off the mark over seven furlongs here late last month, clocking a very fast overall time and an especially impressive closing sectional as he drew away by four lengths. There's certainly enough in that win to think that an opening BHA mark of 83 underplays Tropics' ability and, even though there is some fairly stern competition in the race, we'd be disappointed were he not to make a winning handicap debut.

Our final selection runs an hour later and, although his claims aren't as obvious as those of Tropics, he could be even better handicapped. Certainly looking back through his career, Greylami has always saved his best for polytrack, this course in particular, while his BHA mark on the all-weather has never been lower since he won the Rosebery Stakes off 87 (now 88) back in 2009. A slipping mark reflects the fact that Greylami has won only once since and hasn't shown up that well on turf on any of his three starts in 2012, though his yard (Robert Mills') was largely struggling through the summer and he's now joined Clive Cox, who's had a rather better year.

Timeform SmartPlays

Back Uxizandre @ 1.981/1 in the 13:10 at Market Rasen
Back Tropics @ 3.4549/20 in the 17:40 at Kempton
Back Greylami @ 9.417/2 in the 18:40 at Kempton