Portland Handicap: Bielsa to Manage Portland Success

Portland Handicap: Bielsa to Manage Portland Success

1.50 Doncaster A maximum field of 22 go to post, all looking to land this attractive £37,000 first prize and we’ve managed to whittle the field down to six outstanding candidates. A Momentofmadness Last year’s winner seems to be coming back to form at just the right time, the six-year-old gelding having run a good sixth behind the fast-improving Dakota Gold at York. While he is now 4lbs lower in the handicap since last year’s win and William Buick is…

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Ebor Handicap: Ben Vrackie to Give Ebor Rivals a Mountain to Climb

Ebor Handicap: Ben Vrackie to Give Ebor Rivals a Mountain to Climb

3.40 York The first £1million Ebor Handicap at York has attracted such a competitive field that, while having nailed down a selection, it is close to impossible for us to shortlist less than 8 horses with these runners all holding major chances of landed the £600,000 first prize. Racecard Contenders Baghdad Mark Johnston is a past master with these big staying handicaps and has three runners in this, his Baghdad arguably being the best of them.  He has produced his…

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Great St Wilfrid Handicap: Great St Wilfrid Trophy Off to Lahore

Great St Wilfrid Handicap: Great St Wilfrid Trophy Off to Lahore

3.15 Ripon A full field of 20 runners go to post at Ripon on Saturday for the Great St Wilfrid, the Garden Racecourse hosting its number one event and offering a cool £46,000 to the winner. Local trainers have a terrific record in this race and we expect that trend to carry on, Yorkshire’s Mark Johnson, Phillip Makin, Tim Easterby and David O’Meara all holding serious chances while Darlington’s Michael Dods knows the time of day with sprinters.  Here’s our…

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Stewards’ Cup: Growl on the Prowl at Goodwood

Stewards’ Cup: Growl on the Prowl at Goodwood

3.40 Goodwood Looking at the results of the last three Stewards’ Cups, there is no appreciable track bias with placed horses coming from all sorts of boxes.  Instead then we must see where the pace is, not necessarily meaning where the front-runners are but where our highest rated horses are jumping from. Of the six we’ve put up below, four of them are coming from low draws so we’ve taken the view that the far side may be a little…

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John Smith’s Diamond Jubilee Handicap: Style to Hunt Them Down in John Smith’s

John Smith’s Diamond Jubilee Handicap: Style to Hunt Them Down in John Smith’s

3.50 York A full field of 22 runners and a purse worth an impressive £200,000 naturally makes this one of the most competitive handicaps of the year so far. Form from various trips and numerous tracks is represented as some of the best trainers in the country go in search of a huge Saturday win, but on closer inspection of the field it seems there is a sensible bet to be had in this year’s race and we will simply…

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Old Newton Cup (Handicap): Let Off the Bombyx in the Old Newton Cup

Old Newton Cup (Handicap): Let Off the Bombyx in the Old Newton Cup

3.15 Haydock This is a very famous old race and one that has attracted a good field.  The mile-and-a-half handicap is worth over £62,000 to the winner and as such some of the biggest stables are represented; William Haggas, Charlie Appleby and John Gosden among others bringing horses from Newmarket. Al Muffrih William Haggas’ four-year-old comes into this race as favourite after winning the Zetland Gold Cup at Redcar, but while the extra distance may help it has to be…

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Northumberland Plate (Heritage Handicap): Bartholomeu the Man

Northumberland Plate (Heritage Handicap): Bartholomeu the Man

3.35 Newcastle The historic Northumberland Plate takes place on Saturday in front of a capacity crowd at Gosforth Park, and the £150,000 event has once again attracted a full field of 20 runners, albeit last year’s winner Withhold has been taken out. Runners with a variety of profiles are entered here and, on the numbers, this has proven to be just about the most competitive handicap we’ve reviewed on the flat so far this season.  That said, we do have…

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Wokingham Stakes: O’Meara Filly Just Perfection

Wokingham Stakes: O’Meara Filly Just Perfection

5.00 Ascot The Wokingham Stakes is one of the toughest handicaps of the entire year to get right, but with enough information at our disposal we think we’ve been able to successfully shrink this enormous field down to six key runners: Bacchus Brian Meehan trained this horse to come out first time for the season in this race last year and score from the hugely well-supported Dreamfield, and from not the best draw either. He could potentially be a couple…

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Duke of Edinburgh Stakes: Cox to Steer Kasperenko to DoE Victory

Duke of Edinburgh Stakes: Cox to Steer Kasperenko to DoE Victory

5.35 Ascot Another day, another full handicap field at Royal Ascot and this time it’s the turn of the older mile-and-a-half horses. This is a quality line-up and while there are plenty in with chances, the key piece of recent British form comes from York and their hot recent Race to the Ebor Jorvik Handicap over this trip, but there could just be a real improver in the field ready to hit his peak at the right time. Ben Vrackie…

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Sandringham Stakes: Balding Filly Available to Back in Sandringham

Sandringham Stakes: Balding Filly Available to Back in Sandringham

5.00 Ascot This £90,000 contest for three-year-old fillies has attracted 28 runners, the pace is in the middle-to-low stalls while other races have favoured high numbers and we cannot predict the ground 100% accurately. All in all then this is a real challenge, but just as we did when finding Afaak to win the Hunt Cup we can be brutal in throwing out candidates who have chinks in their armour, with the below six fillies looking to be the ones…

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