The horse racing broadcaster picks out his best bets from Saturday's action on the final weekend before the York Ebor meeting.
With York’s Ebor meeting just around the corner, a mixed bag of races make up the seven covered on ITV4 this Saturday.
The feature race is the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes at Newbury, where supporters of More Thunder will no doubt be in for their usual white-knuckle ride. William Haggas has successfully reinvented this horse over shorter trips this season, but he always leaves it late—sometimes very late. Moving out of handicap company, he may meet his match in KING’S GAMBLE 9/2 (15:35 Newbury). Ralph Beckett’s charge showed he retains the ability that saw him chase home Lead Artist at Goodwood last season, and he shaped well on his reappearance at Newbury behind a rejuvenated Rage of Bamby. He has clearly not been easy to train, but with that run under his belt and the step back up to 7f, he can reward connections’ patience with a first Group race victory.
Handicaps are very much the order of the day, and it’s always great to see coverage on mainstream television for one of my favourite racecourses — Ripon. Two fiendishly difficult sprint races to solve, the first of which could go to IT JUST TAKES TIME 11/1 (14:45 Ripon). The stable of Mark Walford looks to have turned the corner after a quiet spell. He has a course-and-distance victory to his name off as high as 90, and somewhat surprisingly, there isn’t a great deal of pace, which could see him cross right over to the stands rail from stall 6. During June and July, the stable were just 2/68 (A/E 0.30), but they’ve already matched that total with their first nine runners in August and are a yard to keep an eye on.
In the main race, The Great St. Wilfrid, it could be a big day for young Ethan Tindall, who rides ROCK OPERA 8/1 (15:20 Ripon) for boss Richard Fahey. Rock Opera hasn’t won for a while but travelled really strongly under Ethan at York last time, when not beaten far behind Elmonjed. He is nicely drawn close to the stands rail in stall 14, and as long as he gets the breaks in what is often a congested finish, he should run well here. There is pace from stall 1 courtesy of Intervention, who could lead a few over to the inside rail. The race has been won from over there in the past, but hopefully that will just thin out the traffic on the stands side for Rock Opera.
There are also decent handicaps at Newbury, where GETREADYTORUMBLE 3/1 (14:25 Newbury) can come from off what looks a likely very strong pace and defy top weight. He has been progressive for Jack Channon this campaign and has the potential to outclass his rivals here on the way to better things. He is versatile regarding ground, so a return to a faster surface—as opposed to the deluge he faced last time at Goodwood—is not a concern. The yard is in excellent form, with 3/12 domestic runners this month, plus Miss Attitude’s Listed win at Deauville last Sunday.
From a three-year-old to a 12-year-old in DOCUMENTING 18/1 (15:00 Newbury), who could be set for a final hurrah in a race he has run well in before. He won the race off a mark of 99 in 2022 and was placed at 50/1 off a mark of 94 last season. Even if age has wearied him slightly, a mark of 85 with his yard going well still leaves some wriggle room for another decent run at what looks a big price.
Finally, after ITV coverage ends, make a note of VENETIAN PRINCE SP (16:10 Newbury), who comes from a race at Newmarket last month that has worked out exceptionally well. No fewer than five of the seven horses who have run since have won next time out. One of the other pair, Catullus (runs Friday at Yarmouth), pushed Guineas hope Publish close at Sandown. Beautifully bred, he is a half-brother to See The Fire. Even normal progress should see him go very well here, and all those yet to run out of that Newmarket race — notably winner Distant Storm (entered in the Acomb at York on Wednesday) and fourth-placed Billecart — are worth sticking in a tracker.
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