Three-year-old handicappers to follow: Part 1

A series of blogs featuring around 30 potentially well-handicapped three-year-olds for 2018. These horses are likely to have been lightly raced as a two-year-old with their three-year-old campaign in mind. Aiming to make a solid profit by the end of the season.

Horse	Comment	Rating
Antagonist	A Bjorn Neilsen homebred with a nice middle distance pedigree. Antagonist is a half-brother to Almodovar who was a slow developer, starting life in handicaps off a mark of 80, showing steady progress, before placing in a Hardwicke a year later. Antagonist was quite green on debut and stayed on well in a decent novice event, in which four horses have come out and won since. He was still very green on his third run at Kempton and given an easy ride behind the leaders. He wasn’t far behind Court House that day who is now rated 92. I suspect his opening mark will be lenient given how his half brother progressed and the greenness he showed on his first three outings.	73
Arthenia	A Camelot filly costing 50,000 GNS. Arthenia was very green in the early stages of a strong novice race at Newbury on debut, staying on well in the final two furlongs. She produced a decent run in a good juvenile race on her third start after being very slowly away. There is stamina in the family so Arthenia will be well suited by a step up in trip. The first two in her third race are both now rated 94, which suggests she is starting life on a lenient mark.	71
Becky Sharp	By Foxwedge, an Australian stallion who’s first crop progressed quite nicely from two to three. Becky Sharp was highly tried in a strong Sandown maiden on her second start but was hampered and eased over 3f out. She was better on her third start, putting up an RPR of 59 in a race that has produced winners. She may be a little risky and her breeding gives mixed messages over her best trip but her trainer does well with three-year-old handicappers and opening mark is fair.	62