4.15 Carlisle Tip, Wednesday, September

The Andersons “Quality for Your Home” Handicap (4.15), over 5 furlongs 193 yards, at Carlisle on Wednesday features 17 runners and looks just the race for a midweek tilt at the ring.

Conversant has raced just three times on soft going, on his racecourse debut last September, on his seasonal debut at Ripon in April and, most notably, when winning comfortably in this grade, off a 5lb lower mark, at Doncaster nine days later. Two non-descript runs on the Tapeta surface at Wolverhampton and on good ground at Ayr in recent months have seen David O’Meara’s 3-year-old dropped 4lb from his career-high handicap mark of 73. He’s by smart juvenile sprinter Zebedee out of a Danehill Dancer mare and still has time on his side after just five starts for the North Yorkshire trainer, so it’ll be disappointing if we’ve seen the best of him already.

With underfoot conditions in his favour, he may well be capable of much better. Of course, he needs to be, after finishing only eighth of nine, beaten 15 lengths, in a similar race at Ayr last time, but the doubts about him should be reflected in his price and he can give us a decent run for our money at potentially lucrative odds. His draw, in stall 14 of 17, is ideal on soft going at Carlisle, where runners tend to tacks across to the stands’ side and stable jockey Daniel Tudhope has a fair, if unspectacular, 8-46 (17%) strike rate on 3-year-olds for the yard this season.

Selection: Carlisle 4.15 Conversant to win 16/1