First Company is an unexposed four-year-old gelding who has the progressive potential to be in contention for this Class 5 seven-furlong race at Chelmsford.
Having joined Mark Loughnane in the autumn, First Company has had three runs for his new yard and comes fresh following two months off after looking a little too keen last time out at Kempton.
With just two outings on synthetic tracks, First Company is unexposed on this surface, and on his all-weather debut he finished fourth of six after a moderately encouraging run, not getting to the leaders but staying on steadily under a fairly gentle ride from Richard Kingscote.
14:40 (Chelmsford) First Company
Saturday's step up in trip to seven furlongs might be exactly what he needs, and what makes his current price particularly attractive is that, with a seven-pound claim from his jockey, Billy Loughnane, he's effectively 15lb better off than for that debut run.
Indeed, his rating was as high as 80 last May, way higher than his current 66 mark, and although his last win was nearly two years ago, his lightly-raced history means that was only eleven races ago.
The father-and-son trainer-jockey combination has enjoyed a 10% strike rate, which, when combined with other potentially favourable factors, seems to suggest that First Company carries good each way value at anything from 16/1 upwards.
