Herrington has grand designs for improving Doc Sportello

3.45 Wolverhampton

Betway Handicap | 5f20y | ATR

Even The Boomtown Rats would like Mondays if the races were always as good as this - a £46,000 handicap featuring a sprinter considered a potential Group horse.

Doc Sportello earned a place in the Sprint race on All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Lingfield in April by landing a fast track qualifier at Newcastle month and is reckoned to have more improvement in him.

He has been put up 16lb by the handicapper and there is plenty of quality in this field, with Boom The Groom placed in Listed company at Lingfield last time, Bowson Fred second in the Gosforth Park Cup at Newcastle last summer, and Jordan Sport on a hat-trick after six-furlong wins here and at Lingfield.

Bidding for a repeat

Boom The Groom won this race last year but is 10lb higher in the handicap 12 months on, when he is reopposed by the 2016 third Royal Birth and ninth Judicial.

Two chances to hit the jackpot again

Stuart Williams won an even more valuable handicap at Newcastle last week with Suzi's Connoisseur, and his Royal Birth and Shamshon both had pipe-openers last month.

What they say

Tony Carroll, trainer of Boom The Groom
He has a lovely draw [stall one] and ran very well at Lingfield the other day, I was very pleased with him. He's higher in the handicap this year, as high as he's ever been, but he's in great form and he's very talented.

Michael Herrington, trainer of Doc Sportello
He's never run around a bend before and I wanted to do that before he goes to Lingfield. I like Wolverhampton, it's nice and flat and it's riding well, and there should be a lot of pace on. He's up to 104 but he did well to win at Newcastle, where they were all rated 100-plus, and I hope he's a Group horse.

Robert Cowell, trainer of Encore d'Or
He's in good form and training great but it's a competitive race and he has a pretty average draw. We go there with a little bit of hope but not as optimistic as if he'd been drawn a bit lower.

Julie Camacho, trainer of Judicial
He seems in good form and goes well fresh. This has been the plan and it should be a good race for him. Things didn't really pan out for him when he ran in it last year and we're just hoping for some luck this time.

Stuart Williams, trainer of Royal Birth and Shamshon
Royal Birth wasn't beaten far in the race last year, Aaron Jones gets on well with him and he has a nice draw. Shamshon hasn't been quite so lucky with the draw but he ran a good race over six furlongs at Chelmsford last time and he's probably better at five.

James Given, trainer of Sign Of The Kodiac
He ended up quite high in the handicap, which made life difficult, but he's come back down now and is back at a track he's run well at many times. He has a reasonable draw so we're hopeful.

David Simcock, trainer of Jordan Sport
He's in excellent order, he's learning his trade as a sprinter and he's learning fast. We've had this race in mind for a while. It's his first time at five furlongs; he's shown terrific speed in his races but this is a different ball game.