A day on from being underwhelmed by Christmas crackers, and gags contained within more disposable than the tawdry party hats, it's your Christmas tracker you need to focus on.
"Bah humbug", you might say - and it wouldn't be Christmas without a little humbug - but the racing calendar over the festive period is loaded with seasonal gluttonous excess.
On St Stephen's Day alone, in Ireland and Britain, there are no less than 11 meetings and 77 races for your perusal.
That magnitude makes "perusal" the operative word in terms of form study. We've a handful of races over the coming days where the complexion of the fields can be reasonably guesstimated in advance, but they're the exceptions to the rule.
That's where the trackers, offered on various platforms, come into their own. Committing horses to a physical notebook or relying solely on memory may be things of the past, but alerts on those runners that have taken your eye last season or in the early part of this one make a sprawling task more manageable.
1.05 Aintree - Potters Charm - LAY
Potters Charm is the clear favourite for the Grade One William Hill Formby Novices' Hurdle, but there are a number of reasons for suspecting he's one to oppose on Merseyside, not least recency bias.
Potters Charm, who is unbeaten in four starts under Rules, has won his last two starts at Cheltenham.
His latest victory at Britain's premier National Hunt track came in a decent time, but nothing better than that, and that race fell apart to a degree.
Favourite Valgrand overraced at stages in that contest and has subsequently been well beaten.
While Potters Charm has won a bumper over the minimum trip, his wins over hurdles have come over intermediate distances. That bumper win came on heavy ground and there's nothing in his profile or in his pedigree to suggest that he will improve for a drop in trip on lively ground on a flat track such as Aintree.
Historically, trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies is known for having his string quite forward early in the season, meaning Potters Charm could be vulnerable to an improver lurking here.
Establishing exactly who that improver might be in a field with some depth isn't easy. Even if you do isolate likely dangers, this isn't an attractive each-way betting medium from a mathematical standpoint.
With seven runners, just two places are on offer. One more runner in the field would have afforded punters three places.
A small lay on the favourite at 7-4 or shorter looks the play.
Selection: Lay Potters Charm 0.5pt @ 2.76 or under
1.45 Leopardstown - Miss Maxfort - BACK
A handicap hurdle, let alone a 20-runner novice handicap hurdle, might not normally be a place to land on the best value bet of the day.
Aside from the nigh-impossible task of delving through the form for 20 horses, you do so in the knowledge that not all the runners have been campaigned on their merits to date.
A number of runners contesting the Dornan Careers Novice Handicap Hurdle here have likely raced short of peak fitness and/or been "tenderly handled", as they say.
For the good of the game, it's those runners that have run on their merits that we should want to prevail. That horse, in this spot, might just be Miss Maxfort.
A winner at Wexford on her second start last time out, there's reason to suspect that an opening handicap mark of 109 might underestimate her ability.
Looking a little green on her debut run, she again gave a number of her hurdles a little too much air at Wexford and will need to jump with more alacrity to score here.
However, her win came in a good time and she quickend well after the final flight to win in some style.
Time aside, the form of that race has arguably taken a boost subsequently. Runner-up Balko d'Ange filled the same finishing place on his next appearance at Limerick. However, he jumped poorly and would have given the winner more to think about but for his deficiencies in that area.
Cotteslow Sunshine, who prevailed at Limerick, has since placed and won in Listed company. She now boasts an official rating of 120.
This Leopardstown contest is far from the most prestigious race on the card, but it's a Christmas contest at a metropolitan track, and an opportunity for little-known trainer Nicky Stokes to show what he can do when he has the right ammunition.
Miss Maxfort is available at 16-1, but the 14-1 with Paddy Power and paying six places for each-way betting makes more appeal and rates as value.
Selection: Back Miss Maxfort 1.5pts EW @ 14-1
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2.30 Kempton - Spillane's Tower - BACK
Spillane's Tower came within half a length of winning the John Durkan and separated Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs on his seasonal reappearance at Punchestown. That's the best form on display here, at least during the current season.
Jimmy Mangan's stable star was fastest of all in the latter stages of a contest over just short of two and a half miles that turned into a test of speed. The main question mark over the Ladbrokes King George VI favourite might just be his stamina.
Spillane's Tower did win over 3m1f at the Punchestown Festival, but that was another race that developed into a test of speed. If he does stay, his place at the head of the market looks merited.
Concerns have been expressed over the quicker ground he will likely encounter here, but Mark Walsh's mount doesn't display a pronounced knee action and there isn't anything in his pedigree to cause too much worry over the state of the terrain.
Banbridge and Il Est Francais are the most obvious alternatives. The former will relish the ground, but has stamina doubts to overcome. The latter is arguably a greater danger and probably boasts the single best piece of lifetime form. That came over course and distance 12 months ago in the Kauto Star Novices' Chase. Two of his three runs since then have been lamentable displays and he has a history of bursting blood vessels, but better ground and this sharp, flat track could see him bounce back to his best.
The King George is regarded as Kempton's Christmas highlight, but probably only nominally so this year, with Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth threatening to serve up an intoxicating aperitif in the Christmas Hurdle 35 minutes earlier that will overpower the supposed main course.
Like most races, it's probably one to watch, rather than punt on.
Reportage surrounding Constitution Hill's wellbeing became fatiguing quite some time ago, but we now get the opportunity to see exactly where he's at.
He's the best horse in the contest on all known form, but his absence is an obvious concern.
Lossiemouth has mainly been beating her own sex, but in impressive times and emphatic fashion.
Her dismissal of Teahupoo last time out was entirely predictable as her only realistic challenger requires testing ground and/or a staying trip to be seen at his best.
There are slim pickings to be had in terms of the betting market for the race, with no each-way betting.
The one thing that we can be sure of is that a legion of Captain Hindsights will pop up in the aftermath of the race, regardless of the outcome. If Constitution Hill wins, his supporters will say that he was always a certainty. If he's beaten, we'll hear of how the absence was too great to overcome and/or that he's not what he once was.
With four runners, on paper, it's not a binary choice. However, it does feel like that. The problem is that it's so difficult to assign a price to Constitution Hill that it's arguably better to wait for a future skirmish between the two main protagonists at Cheltenham - if such an occurrence transpires.
Selection: Back Spillane's Tower 0.5pt @ 10-3
3.08 Down Royal - Polepatrick - BACK, Strong Link - BACK
Theflyingking represents Gordon Elliott here and his trainer boasts a good record in this race, but the winning pointer and likely favourite faces two rivals with reasonable levels of form in Strong Link and Polepatrick.
Strong Link achieved very little in three point-to-points last season, but his debut under Rules at Navan was very encouraging. He followed home Whinney Hill at the County Meath circuit, with the first two drawing well clear in a race run at a sedate early pace.
The winner seems well thought of and had the benefit of a run a month earlier, while the third home has since made a solid debut over hurdles.
Polepatrick's sole run over course and distance back in May yielded a runner-up finish. The form of that race is not particularly strong, but it was a performance better than the bare result.
Dermot McLoughlin's charge pulled hard from the off, carting his rider to the head of affairs, where he still failed to settle until nearly the halfway stage of the contest. The fact that he only faltered and was passed in the latter stages suggests we're dealing with a horse of some ability. However, he may be one to back win only as we have to take his fitness on trust after his absence and it's yet to to be established if he's amenable to restraint.
Selection: Back Strong Link 0.5pt E/W @ 6-1
Selection: Back Polepatrick 0.5pt @ 9-2
