The lightly raced Xclaim shaped with plenty of promise on his first starts for Mickey Hammond and at 12/1 looks worth a punt to open his account in the 8.40 at Pontefract.
The gelding stuck to the task really well when staying on from the rear to be finish a 4 1/2 length third of 11 to Gala casino star in the mud at Redcar last month on his first starts for 299 days.
It was a run which suggested that with normal improvement he would have little difficulty winning races off his current mark of 67, and he could be well-treated judged on bits and pieces of form he showed in four previous starts when trained by Clive Cox.
The son of Proclomation put in a very eye-catching run on his second start back in 2010 in a hot maiden at Newbury when staying on inside the final two furlongs to finish 7th of 17 to the classy Al Kazeem and that race has thrown up plenty of future winners.
He has clearly not been easy to train as he then had just two starts last year, but he didn’t run too badly on the last of those when finishing 6th of 8 to Ellie In The Pink at Goodwood over 7f where he was beaten just 2 3/4 lengths.
Judged on his first start for Hammond today’s 1m 2f trip clearly suits, and if he can build on that he looks sure to go well at a decent price.
Daily Sport recommended bet: 2pts each-way Xclaim (12/1 bet365, Betfred – BOG)