Kevin Blake's Big Race Verdict: Back Lattam to run a big race in the Lincoln

• Kevin Blake previews the Lincoln at Doncaster

• Selection finished second in this race last year

• Betfair are offering six places for 15:35 contest

• We are now NRNB on the 2025 Grand National

Timeform Superboost

The 2025 Flat season commences at Doncaster today and in the nine-runner Listed race at 15:00 Liberty Lane is well-fancied to win for trainer Karl Burke, who has a particularly good record at this meeting.

Liberty Lane is a course and distance winner who hasn't finished out of the top three in his last three starts, and today you can back him to finish in the top three again at the super-boosted price of 1/12.00 (from 2/51.40). To take advantage, just click on the odds in the below bet banner to go directly to the pre-loaded betslip.

*Please Note: This superboost is provided by the Betfair Sportsbook and not by any of our tipsters or writers.

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Given the sheer jingoistic fervour of the fanbase of National Hunt racing, at times it feels like one should preface any enthusiasm for the return of the Flat with an apologetic nod to the National Hunt ultras who are simultaneously witnessing their season starting to wind down. However, there will be no apologies here. The Flat is back and boy am I glad to see it.

The opening weekend of Flat action on ITV Racing isn't one of the blockbuster line-ups of the season by any means, but it delivers deep, competitive fields with the promise of a great amount of excitement and learnings to take forward for the weeks and months ahead.

The featured contest of the day is the Lincoln (15:35) at Doncaster and it has attracted the depth of field that we always associate it with.

Lincoln Handicap may see less pace this year

With any big-field handicap on the Flat, the draw and potential pace picture are as good starting points as any. Neither are always the easiest to forecast, but in terms of the draw the Lincoln has revealed some consistent tendencies over the years.

In short, while it is most common for the Lincoln to develop up the middle of the track, this hasn't stopped horses being able to win and run very well from extreme ends of the draw. Indeed, two of the last three renewals were won by horses drawn very low in races that ended up in the middle of the track. In the absence of anything very strong in terms of the draw, trying to find the hot spots on the pace map appeals as being a better route to guidance.

In this case, the first thing to say in that regard is that there isn't as much solid pace on paper as one might expect for a race like this. The most dependable prospective pace looks to be Thunder Run (19) and Orne (4) who are drawn at opposite sides of the track. Other prominent racers include Two Tempting (10) and Old Cock (14).

So, the somewhat watery conclusion to make on these fronts at least is that there doesn't seem to be anything notable there to make any solid generalisations about the draw or pace picture, with the main takeaway being that there might not be quite as much pace on as there can often be in this race.

Camacho runner looks a Lincoln horse

Moving on from that largely fruitless distillation process, the one I've come down on is the Julie Camacho-trained Lattam. The six-year-old has only had 15 starts in his life which hints that he might take a bit of minding, but he has already been a fine soldier for his connections in races of this type.

The son of Lope De Vega burst onto the big-race scene when coming from a seemingly impossible position to get up in the final stride to win the Irish Lincolnshire at the Curragh in 2023 on what was just his fifth career start and seasonal reappearance. While he perhaps hasn't driven on as well as that memorable effort suggested he might, he continued to pay his way for William Haggas prior to changing hands for 50,000gns in October 2023 and joining Julie Camacho.

Now, we aren't in the full-time business of mind reading, but I would go a short price that Camacho very much had "Lincoln horse" written across his catalogue page the day she bought him and has duly campaigned him that way.

Making his debut for his new connections in this race last year, he ran a huge race to finish second to Mr Professor off a mark of 95. While his two runs after that weren't as good, he was freshened up before once again underlining how good he is when fresh when finishing an excellent second in the Balmoral Handicap on the British Champions Day at Ascot despite not getting the clearest of runs.

While we have to take his race fitness on trust, his record when fresh speaks for itself. Indeed, Timeform made special mention of how well he looked prior to making his return in this race last year. We can't know for sure that his preparation for it has gone as well this season as it did last year, but we can be as sure as we can be that Julie Camacho will have done her utmost to get him here in the best possible shape.

He is the type that will always need luck in running given his hold-up style, but Betfair are offering no less than six places and that provides a strong level of insurance for bettors in the event that things don't drop quite right for him on the day. All being well, Lady Luck will smile on Lattam and he'll thank her by running a very big race.

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