King George Day at Kempton Preview PT 1

The Boxing Day fixture at Kempton is always one of the most highly-anticipated days on the National Hunt calendar. We’ve got another stellar looking iteration of the King George V Chase in addition to the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle where the widely-touted Faugheen is set to go off in the neighbourhood of 2/5 in what many expect to be an absolute roll over with the five other contenders in the mix. 

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In addition to the pair of Grade 1 contests, we have a solid selection of listed action which works well with the relatively smaller fields that punters have to navigate here. With the biggest field on the card being the twelve runners in the final race - a Class 3 handicap hurdle - we’re going to be looking to put together some multi-race wagers here as the pools are expected to be full from punters rushing to spend their Christmas cash. 

In the opening race, we have a novice hurdle set to unfold with a relatively smaller field dominated by the likes of Arzal. He finally made the breakthrough at this level at Kempton about a month ago, toppling a field of nine by a full seven lengths when sent off at a 7/2 price tag on the day. He boasts a 139 rating alongside one of the top weights Jollyallan, who gets McCoy here and turns out for the Harry Frye yard. 

The wildcard in here might just be Sempre Medici, who lines up for Willy Mullins yard and will get Ruby in the irons here. He won on his first outing over hurdles after stepping off the listed flat circuit in France. 

He acquitted himself fairly well in his previous career and made a big breakthrough when debuting at Cork in a maiden contest - romping  home by eight lengths over a field of twelve. He went off as the absolute prohibitive favourite in a field that big - trading at a slim 1/4 at the off with Paul Townend up. 

Switching to Ruby and looking to improve in his second race, he could very well be contesting graded action soon and is clearly one to watch heading into the festival. He could get things off to a big start for punters on Friday.