The horse racing broadcaster offers up five selections from Saturday's racing at Goodwood, Sandown and Windsor.
Two good cards from Goodwood and Sandown make up the coverage on ITV4 this weekend and for the first time in over two months rain, and how much, is a key factor. Both tracks are scheduled to get a dousing during Saturday morning and that could turn recent fast ground form on its head.
One horse for rain would be a massive bonus is RHOSCOLYN 11/2 (14:00 Goodwood), a confirmed mudlark who also has an excellent track record with cut in the ground. His record at Goodwood on ground good to soft or slower is 6/12 (A/E 3.24) with another three of the other six runs resulting in him making the frame. Every single one of those efforts has come off a higher mark than today (84) and if there is sufficient rain to turn the ground to the slow side, he looks to have an excellent chance of adding to that already excellent record.
Another horse who goes well at the Sussex Venue is ARISAIG 25/1 (EW) (15:10 Goodwood) for whom things have not gone right in recent starts. She loves a good pace to aim at but that has not been the set up in any of her last few outings. On the face of it she has it to do at the weights, but it is worth remembering how well she acquitted herself in the race last year when she may well have beaten the 115 rated Jonquil had her effort started sooner. She was rated 97 that day compared to 99 today with the highest rated Zavateri rated 117, so the differential of 18 is the same as last year. Granted this is a deeper renewal in terms of the number of runners, but she is quoted as high as 28-1 in places at the time of writing and with Qirat and Seagulls Eleven in the field she could have a stronger pace to run at.
At Sandown even a 14lb hike in the weights for a runaway Kempton win may not be enough to stop KOKBASTAU 100/30 (14:15 Sandown). The owner names his horses after geographical features or places in Kazakhstan and Kokbastau could nearly have won by that far at Kempton last time. Sent off a short-priced favourite he stormed away to win by 5l and whilst the handicapper has certainly not missed him, he is just the sort of progressive three-year-old that at this time of year may just be passing through handicaps on the way to better things in Pattern company.
The feature juvenile race on Sandown’s card is the Solario where SONIC ANGEL 7/2 (15:30 Sandown) can stretch his unbeaten record to three. As mentioned before in this blog, Dark Angel sired horses are usually slow learners improving markedly as they gain experience so even though Sonic Angel was a breeze up purchase, so likely to be more clued up than most on debut, it was still significant he won first time out (two-year-old debut Dark Angel 80/1043 A/E 0.76 overall two-year-old ). He did take the anticipated step forward at Kempton last time and deserves this rise in grade. The Crisfords have done well with their juveniles this season (15/35 A/E 1.59) especially their Breeze Up horses.
Away from the televised action column favourite, TENABILITY 100/30 (18:30 Windsor) can defy a 3lb penalty for his recent Listed win at Goodwood. It looks significant that Tom Marquand chooses to ride here rather than at Sandown (where he has such a good record) or Goodwood and Wiliam Haggas’s consistent four-year-old can win again.
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