The horse racing broadcaster makes his selections for the final day of the Newmarket July Meeting, plus another from York on Saturday.
A busy weekend in terms of quality, with big meetings at Newmarket, Ascot and York meaning a bumper programme of 10 races on ITV.
The feature race is the Darley July Cup, featuring the latest clash between the age groups as three-year-olds INISHERIN
11/4
(16:35 Newmarket) and Vandeek meet their elders. My preference in almost all the divisions is to favour the youngsters with a paucity of UK-trained older horses.
Inisherin has been one of the finds of the season and just looks a seriously good horse, whether he stays sprinting or at some stage moves back up in trip. His Royal Ascot victory in the Commonwealth Cup was achieved with the minimum of fuss. It would be wrong to dismiss Vandeek solely off the back of his laboured display behind Inisherin in the Sandy Lane. The Crisford yard were quiet at the time but, like several in Newmarket, seem to be going much better now. Regional should be best of the older horses but may find the younger brigade too hot to handle.
The big handicap at Newmarket is the Bunbury Cup, where it is worth giving BLESS HIM
22/1
(16:00 Newmarket) another chance to prove he is no back number. A strongly run big-field handicap suits him well and so he did disappoint at Ascot, but he is well treated on old form that includes a win in this race in 2022 and a fourth last season. Old adversary Ropey Guest also has claims but may just be a little too high in the weights.
Earlier in the card, NOT REAL
9/1
(14:12 Newmarket) can make a successful handicap debut after getting hassled for the lead early on last time, and so did well to sustain his effort. There is not a great amount of pace here and James Doyle may be able to get a much softer time towards the front end.
Away from Newmarket, in the John Smith’s Cup PARADIAS
10/1
(15:10 York) can go well for Alan King, whose horses are in good form. He went for home a bit early in a 12f handicap at the track last season but is a strong travelling horse with a decent draw and his Epsom form last time has proved solid and is well represented here.
JOCKEYS FOR COURSES
With jockeys stretched far and wide this weekend there is just the one rider worth highlighting, which is Jason Hart at Chester (27/164, A/E 1.39).
STABLE TRACKER HORSE
We had a winner with ELLARIA SAND (7/2) at Newbury on Thursday evening, and have runners on Friday with KNIGHTSWOOD (15:00 Newmarket) and Saturday with ORIGINAL OUTLAW (18:15 Salisbury), who was added after his debut at Goodwood and only lost out narrowly on his first run for the tracker at Kempton last time.
A reproduction of that run would be enough to put him right in the mix here, with the unknown being the strength of the newcomers, most notably the beautifully bred Royal Playwright. A full list of the stable tracker horses can be found here.
COLUMN PERFORMANCE 2024
Selections: 35/35.31, A/E 0.99
Stable Tracker: 18/19.50, A/E 0.92
Jockeys for Courses: 34/37.46, A/E 0.91
Total Performance: 87/92.27, A/E 0.94
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