Timeform provide an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Green Area a filly to follow
The Johnston stable has had some memorable days thanks to the offspring of the broodmare Reckoning. Her star performer was top-class stayer Subjectivist, winner of the Gold Cup in 2021 who returned from injury to finish third in the same race two years later. Reckoning’s other standout performer was Sir Ron Priestley, the St Leger runner-up who won the Jockey Club Stakes and Princess of Wales’s Stakes the same year that his younger half-brother won at Royal Ascot.
More of Reckoning’s offspring have won since for Charlie Johnston, including four-year-old filly Ghaiyya, successful at Doncaster this spring, while her latest foal to be successful is Green Area, her three-year-old by St Mark’s Basilica, who got off the mark in a fillies’ novice at Carlisle last month. That was only Green Area’s third start, improving on her first two efforts, and it makes her of interest on her handicap debut in Catterick’s mile and a half contest (17:25) where she heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings with further improvement to come.
While she only had two rivals to beat at Carlisle, Green Area was a decisive six-length winner, making all the running and driven clear to beat the odds-on favourite Peace Belle. The runner-up has done plenty for that form since, showing her fifth place in the Doncaster Cup was no fluke by finishing third at long odds again in a listed race at Newmarket last week.
Wootton Bassett newcomers worth keeping an eye on
Two-year-old contests feature heavily on Kempton’s evening card and the first division of the mile maiden (17:30) has some interesting newcomers. Encounter sets a fairly useful standard of form among those who have run, but ‘Hot Trainers’ Charlie Appleby and John & Thady Gosden both introduce expensive sons of Wootton Bassett who make plenty of appeal on breeding.
The Gosdens’ colt Wootton King was a 240,000 guineas yearling whose siblings include the full brothers Glorious Forever and Time Warp who began their careers winning races for Ed Walker and Sir Mark Prescott respectively. However, both ended up in Hong Kong where they made into very smart performers, winning the Hong Kong Cup in consecutive years and competing against each other several times.
Godolphin newcomer Muqarrabin was even more expensive at 450,000 guineas, while his trainer has had ten winners among his thirty two-year-old debutants this season. He’s the first foal out of Roger Varian’s smart filly Angel Power whose wins included the Pride Stakes at Newmarket and the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio at Rome. Angel Power is herself a half-sister to smart stayer The Reverend who was a leading fancy for last Sunday’s Irish Cesarewitch. Muqarrabin is bred to do well over longer trips next year, therefore, but he needs taking seriously here with his connections in top form.
Kind of Blue looks best in clash of Group 1 sprinters
There are just six runners for Kempton’s six-furlong conditions race (19:30) but most of them are used to chasing prizes far larger than the £13,400 on offer to the winner here. In fact, three of them are Group 1-winning sprinters and a fourth has won at Group 2 level, though the conditions dictate that none of the runners can have won a Pattern race after 2025.
The smart line-up includes the 2024 Sprint Cup winner Montassib who boasts a two-out-of-two record on the all-weather (at Newcastle) but hasn’t come close to matching his Haydock form in a light career since. More interesting, therefore, are Wise Approach and Mitbaahy. Sole three-year-old Wise Approach won the Middle Park Stakes this time last year and should be suited by the return to six furlongs after running fourth to More Thunder in the Park Stakes over seven furlongs at Doncaster last time, while Mitbaahy would have a say if reproducing his smart effort when a close third in the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood.
Preference though is for ‘Hot Trainer’ James Fanshawe’s Kind of Blue. He’s looking for a first win since the 2024 Champions Sprint Stakes, having been beaten a head by Montassib in the Sprint Cup the time before. His form has been rather in-and-out since, finishing runner-up at Haydock again in 2025, while much his best run this year came when second to Elmonjed in the Minster Stakes at York in May. A course-and-distance winner on his debut at three, Kind of Blue heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and he remains the potential class act with his sights lowered.
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