Tuesday means new handicap marks, and this is the second of our weekly looks at what the handicapper has done to the horses from our reviews and our tracker. Seven caught our eye this week. As always, every suggested target has been checked against this year's published race programme and against the horse itself, sex, age and rating band included, and each suggested race links to last year's running so you can see exactly the type of race we mean.
The first horse is free for everyone to read; the other six are for Premium and Pro members.
Loriko: raised 4lb, 121 to 125, exactly as predicted
Start with the one that shows why we watch these lists. After Loriko was touched off by Master Haku in the novices' hurdle at Market Rasen on Saturday, our review said, in as many words, "we still expect him to climb to around 125". The new list is out, and there he is: 125, to the pound. He was beaten by a rival rated 4lb higher while conceding 5lb, so there is no disgrace in the form, and we still think that mark will look lenient once the Skelton yard goes handicapping with him.
Where next: the Aubrey Loze Memorial Handicap Hurdle at Newton Abbot is the race his profile is pointing at: a Class 2 over 2m5f, a 0-150 so his 125 fits comfortably, worth £15,000-plus to the winner, and run a week earlier this year, on the Saturday before the Ebor. Better still for the plan: Dan Skelton took first and third in this very race last year, so the yard knows exactly what it takes. The bolder route is one of the valuable staying handicap hurdles at next week's Galway festival, headed by the Listed 2m6f handicap hurdle on the Sunday, though that would be a big ask this early in his career.
