Yarmouth Placepot tips: Keith Melrose with a perm to tackle the Racing League card

The fields for the opening Racing League fixture might not be as deep as we would hope, but six handicaps with three places to aim at makes for a unique and appealing Placepot task. There will not be any bankers, so keep unit stakes small.

In the opening nursery (5.30), the relatively experienced Desert Master has the right sort of profile to make the three, while Zola Power has the more obvious scope to improve and has arguably been overlooked.

The following sprint (6.00) is competitive and the flyer in that race is Bear Profit, who has been shaping as though building up to something. Shobiz is a solid and much more obvious alternative.

The mile handicap (6.30) is trappy. Take Shahbaz, Devasboy and Repertoire. In the 7f handicap (7.00) straight after, Able Kane is not exactly handicapped to win but should get a pace set-up to fare well. Zero Carbon has been written off too readily for a poor run at Epsom last time. Good Earth and Sir Titus are the logical options in the 5f handicap (7.30).

Alnilam is an improver who deserves a spot in the perm for the final leg (8.00). He came from the rear last time and not all staying races play out favourably for such horses, so back him up with Matchless who will find this much easier than the Northumberland Plate.

Yarmouth Placepot perm

5.30
5 Desert Master
8 Zola Power

6.00
4 Shobiz
6 Bear Profit

6.30
3 Repertoire
5 Shahbaz
9 Devasboy

7.00
1 Able Kane
6 Zero Carbon

7.30
1 Good Earth
3 Sir Titus

8.00
4 Matchless
12 Alnilam

2x2x3x2x2x2 = 96 lines

Read these next:

'There's no doubt he's well treated' - Tom Segal with two fancies for the opening night of Racing League  

'Provided he gets similar conditions he ought to go close' - Paul Kealy with four Racing League selections  

Racing Post Members' Club: subscribe for just £9.99 this summer 

Sign up to the Tote here. Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators that our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing.