Improving Archie Perkins Can Get Back to Winning Ways

Archie Perkins has shown great improvement this season, with two wins from four starts so far this season. In his other two runs he finished fourth on the all weather, before a very good run to come third at York in a competitive field. He now returns to slightly calmer waters here, and back to Beverley which is the scene of one of his wins already this season. Those two together give him a very good chance of winning again and making it three from five, despite a further rise in the weights.

He didn’t perform too badly last season, but now as a four year old he is really showing his worth. He began this season running at Newcastle off a mark of 71, and today he is 10lb higher off 81. His wins have come off 70 and 73, while his York third was off a mark of 78, so he does have more to do today. However, he has been getting better with every single run, and there is plenty of hope that he can continue that here. Although he has been put up 3lb for his third at York, that is justified, it was a very good run and in a far better race than this. Had he ran off 78 here, which was his York mark, he would have been a great bet, but this mark of 81 is certainly not past him.

His main danger looks to be Beverley specialist Bit Of A Quirke, although at the weights that horse does still have a bit to do. He has a 6lb pull for being beaten by four lengths when they met at this course two runs ago, but that was an easy four length win, and value for more than 6lbs I think.

There is also the face that Archie Perkins appears to have a bit more to come, and is showing signs of real improvement. That is enough for me to go in with him again here at Beverley on Tuesday afternoon.