Three horses to follow at Chelmsford on Saturday

The big freeze doesn’t so much continue to bite in Britain and Ireland so much as refuse to relent its vice-like grip and the all-weather circuits have – well, mostly – kept the show on the road in recent weeks.

Thankfully the end is in sight and a significant thaw is due to set in from Sunday – we can allow ourselves a ‘hallelujah’ given the festive season – but that’s sadly not going to arrive in time to save the slew of abandoned fixtures for this weekend and those already called off for early next week, too.

The great game rolls on to Chelmsford on Saturday and, while this is much humbler fare than what we’re accustomed to on Saturdays during the jumps season, six of the seven all-weather handicaps have ‘each-way’ fields and there are still seven winners to find on a card getting under way from 14:05 GMT.

Here are three horses to keep an eye out for on the day.

He's been running with real consistency recently and this might be his chance to get his head in front in a handicap on the all-weather.

The extended mile-and-a-half trip looked too far on his return to action in October but he’s run with credit on all three starts since and was only headed near the line at Kempton last time when pestered for the lead.

There are 11 runners in contention here but not many are established recent pace-setters bar Bombastic, who is one of the outsiders and drawn towards the other side of the track. He has not been seeing his races out recently and additionally goes up in trip here, so from a wide berth connections may opt to ride him a bit more patiently.

Eagled Eyed Freddie has a good draw right on the rail in stall 1 and can make a decisive early move while going the shortest way around under Erika Parkinson, who has won twice on this horse and claims a valuable 5lb aboard a consistent type who is only 2lb higher in the handicap after his several good recent efforts.

Parkinson has 20 winners from 154 rides so far at a good 13% strike-rate and for huge level stakes profit, performing better than the market has expected (1.14 actual over expected). Her strike-rate is better still when accounting for rides solely for Mick Appleby and her retained yard.

Maiden races are not generally ones that lend to dogmatic opinions – and the two most interesting runners on paper here are career debutants – but there is enough level of form here (or rather lack of it) as well as an established pace angle to lend conviction to the belief that Bluff can build on an encouraging debut.

He was slowly away on debut last time and slipped further behind in the early stages as the two at the head of affairs surged on, with both going on to finish first and second. Bluff was never in a position to genuinely challenge and also ceded further ground by coming wide in the straight, racing on his own and looking green, but stayed on nicely to the line in an encouraging start and the form has received something of a subsequent boost.

While Bluff may have been flattered to finish as close as he did to the runner-up in particular, he really wasn’t knocked about at all and could notably improve for that debut experience. Indeed, trainer Robert Cowell has a 6.4% strike-rate with his debutants since 2010 (0.63 actual over expected) but that leaps to 11.2% (0.88 actual over expected) with runners second-time out. The figures for the yard’s juveniles read similarly.

Baahill is one of the interesting debutants but the yard’s juveniles do come on for a run and their decent strike-rate in novices and maidens is below their overall average at this track, while the beautifully-bred Bravura is not a typical Sir Mark Prescott type in this sort of race. She could prove an exception to the general rule, but it needs to be noted that the yard has a 4.8% strike-rate with two-year-old debutants over the last decade.

She might represent value against likely short-priced favourite Measured Moments, despite also being in good form and additionally having greater long-term substance to her overall form.

City Escape has had 20 starts in little more than a year since joining Mark Loughnane but she seems to be improving for the yard and has shown merit on all three starts in the last six weeks since returning from a three-month break.

She has never been a fast starter, but her tardiness away from the stalls seems to be getting slightly better while she was hampered in the run three starts ago and was forced wide two starts back and subsequently poorly placed. Her win last time was not unmerited by any means and she did well to win from the back of the field and overcome a probable pace bias.

There is not a certain pace angle in this race and, while City Escape likes to race from the rear, a potential lack of a strong early gallop would negate her slow-starting tendencies while it could potentially more gravely inconvenience Measured Moments, who has raced keenly in the recent past.