5:15 – Brighton – THERMOLASTROOFING.CO.UK HANDICAP (CLASS 6) (3yo+ 0-65) Good To Firm 5f59y
Imaginary Diva won over course and distance on her last start and the 6 year old mare is still some 7lbs below her previous high winning mark running off an Official Rating of 59 today. To be fair, she set that mark back in December 2008 but she did win off 59 last August over today’s trip at Yarmouth and her jockey is able to claim 3lbs back. See has never followed up with back to back wins over her 51 run career but at such a specialist track as Brighton with only her and two of the other runners having won here before, a chance is taken that she can manage back to back wins for the first time.
Imaginary Diva saves her best form for August. She has run 14 times in the month over five years winning 4 times and finishing 2nd or 3rd on six more occasions. This year she has run once in August and won, in 2011 her finishing positions in August were 2, 1, 3, 1. In 2010: 1, 3, 5, in 2009: 3, 5, and in 2008: 3, 6, 6, 2.
She runs over 5 furlongs today and has won over course and distance at Brighton twice and finished 2nd and 3rd once each from 8 runs. The going at Brighton is Good to Firm and 3 of Imaginary Diva’s 5 turf wins have come in Good to Firm along with 6 placed efforts from 20 runs in the ground. Interestingly, she has only run three times in Good to Firm in August winning twice and finishing 2nd on her other run.
She is ridden by Ryan Powell this afternoon. Ryan has ridden Imaginary Diva five times and has won on her twice and finished 2nd on her once. Ryan rode her on her last start with was a course and distance win at Brighton 11 days ago. Ryan also has a fair winning strike rate of 18% when riding at Brighton with 4 wins coming from 22 rides at the course.
Imaginary Diva is not the most consistent sprinter as all bar one of her career runs being in Class 5 and Class 6 would testify, but she was in good form on her last run and she does appear to keep her best form for this time of the year. She runs in a race in which winning cases can be made for all of the runners but under a winning jockey, at a course and on ground she has done well at in the past she does look a decent bit of value at odds of 6/1, especially if the race is run at a decent gallop.
