Skip to main content

Saturday 27th June

The Irish Derby at the Curragh is the main highlight in terms of prestige today but the race looks wide-open and there are too many unknown factors for it to be an attractive betting proposition. It will tell us a lot more about the Epsom Derby next weekend but the advice would be to take a watching brief. Santiago has the best form but I'm not sure the drop in trip will suit. If the rain does arrive it might help him as the feeling is that he would need a true test at this trip to be seen to best effect. 

The Northumberland plate at Newcastle looks even more difficult with cases to be made for a number of runners. Alan King is 3 winners from 4 runners in races at 2m or more in the past fortnight and if pushed, his Rainbow Dreamer would be the tentative selection as it will be hard to see him out of the places (Paddy Power are offering 6 places). However, the selection for today comes from the 3.00 at Newcastle in the shape of Virgin Snow. When I looked at the card yesterday evening, I thought 4/1 was a huge price and obviously I wasn't the only one as she has almost halved in price overnight. Her handicap win (admittedly of a mark of 82) last time at Haydock, on just her third start could hardly have been more impressive. She is now officially rated 92 but I think she will definitely be much better than that and in receipt of 12lbs from her elders, it will take a big performance from one of them to get the better of her. She had decent form in a couple of races at two, including behind Run Wild in a Kempton novice that has worked out really well. This daughter of Snow Fairy was always going to improve with age and I think she could be a potential Group 1 filly later in the year. If that is to be the case, she must go close here and while the value has been snapped up, she is still the clear standout on a difficult day.

1 pt win Virgin Snow (9/4 General) Newcastle 3.00 *use BOG firms

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cheltenham 2026 Day 2

A good start is half the battle as they say, but it is still very early days in the 2026 Festival. I think Wednesday is probably the toughest day of this year's festival and I don't have the same ante-post positions either. It does get easier (in my opinion) later in the week so I will be threading carefully again on day two.  The importance of being prominent was one of the big clues from day one and I hope all three of my additional selections will be ridden positively.  Twenty-two runners (not a typo!!!!) go to post in the Turners Novices' Hurdle, the Grade 1 that opens the card. I haven't checked the stats, but I know it has been a long time since a Grade 1 novice had that field size. The changes to the festival handicaps have certainly helped add depth to these contests, with plenty of these likely to have been taking that route if the old rule of three qualifying runs applied. There are question marks over the Irish novices after the Supreme, but I feel like the b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 1: Cheltenham 2026

The 2026 Cheltenham festival is finally upon us and after months of anticipation, the waiting is almost over. For casual fans reading this, this year's festival looks incredibly competitive and with the added complication of horses running on soft ground all winter and now facing decent ground, caution is advised. That is certainly the way I'll be approaching the opening day, although admittedly a good ante-post book will help too. The opening contest is a prime example of the competitiveness on show in this year's festival. This promises to be one of the races of the week, with many bubbles burst. I've been firmly in the Old Park Star camp since his impressive win at Cheltenham in December (advised at 14/1 on Attheraces) and while there is plenty of potential in this field, I feel he sets a very high standard. His time was good at Cheltenham even if he didn't beat much and he was better again at Haydock, when he quickened off a strong pace. That bodes well for this...
Post a Comment
Read more

Royal Ascot Day 2

What an amazing day of racing we witnessed yesterday, sheer quality from start to finish. Personally, for me the highlight was Baatash winning the Kings Stand and putting the "myth" about Ascot to bed. There was no shame in being beaten by Blue Point a couple of times but he thoroughly deserved a win at the Royal meeting. For a horse that has achieved so much, I wonder if perhaps he doesn't get the credit he deserves? A debate for another day perhaps as today's card has taken quite a lot of time to go through! Again, my initial thought for day two is proceed with caution. There are a host of difficult handicaps with any amount of potentially well-handicapped horses and the Group races on the card offer little respite in terms of difficulty level. Addeybb would be a strong fancy if the rain arrives in time but to back him now would be guessing. The trendy horse for the day is clearly Ranch Hand for the concluding handicap at 4.40. I don't pay too much attention to ...
Post a Comment
Read more