William Hill Lincoln: five key runners at 8-1 or bigger

Yorkshire nearly always pulls rank when protecting their own in racing. 

Fair dos and all that, but isn’t it about time that Julie Camacho deserves to be indulged in a bit of ee-ba-gummery? 

No better is that claim evidenced than her careful handling last season of Lattam, who finished an unlucky runner-up in this race 12 months ago off just a 2lb higher mark.  

might not necessarily be suited by the drying ground, but he’s got few miles on the clock for a six-year-old and should not be trading at double-figure odds. 

Karl Burke? Local owners? Four-year-old with a wonderful profile? 

Job done, so let’s pack up the Town Moor tent and watch the procession in the Crown Hotel in Bawtry (“Are you well?”). 

has been prominent in the ante-post Lincoln betting for roughly the time as Wet Wet Wet ruled the airwaves with Love is all Around in the mid-90s (ask your folks for earplugs, kids). 

Crucially, he will also get the necessary fast pace that allows a release of the afterburners late in the piece.

And with the Daily Star telling us it’s going to be hotter in Blighty than the sun this week, it would be a surprise if did not give punters a fair bang for their buck.

Strictly at the prices, though, has he really done enough to warrant what is a pretty steep mark?

Flat stable tours have not quite taken off just yet, so there are very few nuggets with which to make informed decisions ahead of the new season.  

That said, there is a quietly growing consensus that this might be the year of Richard Hughes and . 

Despite strong numbers last season, Marsh and Hughes have rather been scurrying along beneath the radar since making a profitable union, but that could change with Whip Cracker. 

The four-year-old son of Cracksman was the subject of much chatter in the Lincoln trial at Wolverhampton earlier this month, such was the manner in which he finished off his race. 

Whip Cracker can be keen, and will need top trumps in what is a notoriously tricky race, but he is a very useful operator off what is a generous mark. 

One of the great imponderables about the Lincoln is the hours of pointless guesswork that goes into predicting a horse’s fitness. 

History tells us not to bother, with perhaps only a keen paddock-watcher on the day even remotely qualified to shout the odds. 

Magnum Opus is, however, something of a curate’s egg in the race. He’s had five runs already this year, albeit in far sunnier climes than South Yorkshire, and was a fine winner at Meydan in February. 

By contrast to many of his rivals, fitness is surely a given. But has he got that touch of class that is usually necessary to win the Lincoln? 

Commeth the Lincoln, commeth the Haggas. 

Skipton’s finest son has won the race a joint-record four times and pretty much always has one knocking around at the top of the market. 

It is, then, a little bit surprising that Godwinson is currently available at a working man’s price. 

He is chalked up accordingly on the back of two duff runs on soft ground, but it might be more beneficial to consider his fine second in the Spring Cup at Newbury last spring. 

If this has been the long-term plan, and the suspicion is that is has been, a mark of 94 is there to be exploited.