Dave Nevison's top tips for Wednesday: Fans expected to make all at Pontefract

William Carver is an apprentice going places and has his first ride for Sylvester Kirk in this modest sprint handicap.

This horse is rated 2lb higher than the ceiling for this race and the fact that Kirk is exploiting a valuable five pounds looks significant to me.

Three Little Birds won a 0-75 contest over course and distance in September and she has not been seen down in this 0-65 grade for a very long time.

She came back to form last time out in a much more competitive event at Ascot and it will be disappointing if she cannot land this even off top weight.

I find it difficult to judge the rate of improvement of two-year-olds, so tend to focus on all-aged handicaps for my betting, but there are one or two youngsters for which I will make an exception and this one shaped with plenty promise on its debut at Haydock.

Three Fans ran in a race I was watching very closely having had a good bet on Treble Treble - who looks useful - but I was more than a little concerned about how well this one was going for most of the race.

He was beaten a shade under five lengths in the end but looked a future winner and has a lot in his favour here.

The ground is likely to be very similar to what it was at Haydock and he has been handed stall one which is never a disadvantage at Pontefract.

He is up against two newcomers and one that has looked very moderate drawn in the next three stalls so, given how well he knew his job last time, I would expect him to break well, get the lead and hopefully stay in front throughout.

Custodian, an expensive Cheveley Park Stud purchase, representing Richard Fahey is the obvious danger after a promising debut.

This one looked a pretty serious prospect when landing his maiden in a very good time at Nottingham in October.

However, he reappeared fairly late this season and has not lived up to expectations of that form, or a good pedigree.

As a result, he is now running as a gelding and hopefully that will bring about improvement. It will not even have to bring about too much as the form of his latest run would still have him favourite here in my book and apparently he lost a shoe in the race.

Form rival Nonios has become an easy horse to beat and Time Change has been lightly raced after winning last spring, so this really isn’t the most competitive event.