Kicked the month off as the last one ended: with a winner on Thursday: Archimedes (7/1), despite looking in trouble halfway through the race, found plenty when it mattered most. The one I actually fancied even more, though, Azam at Kempton in the evening, was a disappointing flop.

……

7.45 Kempton: Class 4 Handicap, 1m 

Hat-trick seeking Humbert looks the one to hard with more to come and a lenient hike in the ratings unlikely to stop him. That says a far better price, with a lot of potential upside too, is William Muir’s Cyrus Dallin.

The son of Irish 2000 Guineas winner Roderic O’Connor has been gelded over the winter and that could make him an easier ride now, which in turn could eke out some additional improvement.

He also looks the type of horse likely to improve as he gets more mature, as his father’s offspring tends to do best as four-year old horses.

Cyrus Dallin certainly showed more than just glimpses of talent last year, winning on debut, despite showing plenty of greenness and getting bumped into in the home straight; he followed up on turf over 7f in a Handicap during the summer, suggesting he could develop, if stepping up in trip back to a mile, into a mid-80 rated individual, at the very least.

He ran fine in softish conditions at Newmarket subsequently, but two poor performances afterwards saw him being put away for the rest of the year. With added maturity and less interest in the ladies, he could be better than what his current rating of 78 suggests.

Remains to be see whether Cyrus Dallin is fit on his seasonal reappearance. I suspect he is. Because he has an entry for the Lincoln but in order to be able to take up that assignment he’d need to put some more pounds against his handicap mark.

Selection:
10pts win – Cyrus Dallin @ 7/1 GB