2012 William Hill Lincoln Betting Preview
- By A.J. Ryder on March 19, 2012 15:59 GMT
We all know that the end of the Cheltenham Festival means onwards to Aintree for the jumps racing aficionados but the flat fans know that the William Hill Lincoln (and the flat season itself) are just around the corner.
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The massive handicap at Doncaster looks as good as ever this year with several impressive handicappers set to do battle in this one over the 1m distance.
At the top end of the handicap is Andrew Tinkler's Sweet Lightning who ended last season on a high by capturing the Lincoln and then heading of track. He'll be back for this one and is clearly targeting the race but one has to wonder whether he'll be able to handle the 9-10 weight assignment with as much verve as he showed last time.
The timing of Sweet Lightning's ride last year was what made it so impressive and he will likely opt for the stand side route once again. He wound up scoring by just over two lengths but you can't expect as much improvement this time out. Additionally, it's worth remembering that Sweet Lightning had just come off a relatively unsuccessful four race stint at Meydan and showed up to Doncaster in-form. This time he makes the effort off nearly a one-year freshening and, at the age of seven, might take a while to get going this year.
Penitent gets plenty of attention and is just below Sweet Lightning at a 9-8 weighting. His last outing was at Hamilton when capturing a condition stakes race over a slim three-horse field with Paul Hanagan up.
Princess Haya of Jordan saddles Man of Action with Saeed Bin Suroor doing the conditioning for this five-year-old chestnut gelding. He likes Doncaster and scored in a handicap there last September with Dettori in the irons. By Elusive Quality out of a Dixieland Band mare, you have to wonder about his quality because they probably wouldn't have gelded a horse with a pedigree like that unless it was seriously hard to manage. A notable blemish from Meydan this season when he was sent of at 4/6 and finished a tame 6/13 in a turf handicap.
The lengthy handicap will see it's field trimmed slightly over the next few days and we'll be keeping tabs on it all the way.
