Gary Savage's play of the day at Newcastle

Le Grand Vert
4.35 Newcastle

Field sizes should hopefully hold up okay at what will be a soggy Newcastle, and one who will relish conditions and whose descending mark is dovetailing nicely with an improvement in form is Micky Hammond's Le Grand Vert in the 2m7½f novice handicap chase (4.35).

The Hammond stable has had many horses with a similar profile to the selection – French imports who need a while to acclimatise to British racing and to get their handicap down to a reasonable mark – with Polisud, who should follow up his course-and-distance win in the conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle (2.35), a good example.

The value, however, lies in finding those yet to win, and Le Grand Vert looks poised to strike on his 12th outing for the stable. Given a mark of 114 for his first start for Hammond, he has dropped to 86 after 11 mostly modest runs in Britain.

The eight-year-old's best performance on Racing Post Ratings came over this course and distance last March when runner-up off 6lb higher, while his last run, when wearing a visor for the first time, was almost as good.

He was headed only close home by in-form rival Ali Star Bert on that occasion, and can make amends here.