8th-Aug-2015

Rembrandt Van Rijn is a seriously progressive individual this season, we probably haven’t got near the bottom of him yet, and he is worth backing here at 5/1.

David Lanigan’s horse didn’t win last year as a three-year-old, his first season to race. He should have won, he finished second in three of his five races, and he was clear at the furlong pole in one of the other ones when he jinked and unseated his rider.

He was gelded during the winter, and he has won his three races since. He started off this season in a 12-furlong maiden at Wolverhampton in April, which he won easily. He followed up by winning a handicap at Chester in May off a mark of 82, and he stepped forward again from that to land a 10-furlong handicap at Sandown last time off a mark of 90.

There was a lot to like about that performance. He was held up in a race in which it was an advantage to race handily, as is the case in a lot of the Sandown middle-distance races. The second, third, fourth and fifth horses raced in first, second, fourth and fifth places from early. As well as that, George Baker on Rembrandt Van Rijn had to wait for a gap and, when it appeared, the Peintre Celebre gelding picked up nicely and won by a half-length.

The handicapper has raised Rembrandt Van Rijn by 6lb to a mark of 96, but that is fair, he is progressive enough to cope with that type of hike, and it is difficult to argue that he didn’t have at least 6lb in hand at Sandown. That was just his third run of the season, his third since his gelding operation, and he continues to progress.

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN WON (ADV 5/1, SP 7/2)