Thursday's Meetings Doncaster Flat 8 Races 1:30-5:30p.m. Newmarket Flat 7 Races 1:50-5:20p.m. Carlisle Flat 6 Races 2:10-5:07p.m. Leopardstown(E) Flat 7 Races 5:00-8:30p.m. Newbury(E) Flat 7 Races 5:25-8:55p.m. Epsom(E) Flat 6 Races 5:50-8:45p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
Couple of things... I can pass on a strong word for NIGHT SHINING 4.10 Newmarket. Ryan Moore has been booked for the best part of two weeks. EDIT was waiting for a price and it sees everyone knows... Also... i've watched many of AOB's two year olds on play back recently. For me by far the most visually impressive has been BRUSSELS another Wootton Bassett I looked again when a Racing TV report stated it had done a faster 2 furlong to one furlong than Fields of Gold on the same day at the Curragh. AOB described him as “massive, powerful, babyish”. I've taken the 33 for the Guineas next year and had some 7/2 on Monday for the July Stakes on Thursday... now around 5/2..
Grumbling about the small fields at HQ for the first day of the July Meeting is probably unfair, as several of these races never attract big turnouts. The opening Bahrain Trophy (1.50) only features five and four of them contested the Queen’s Vase at the Royal meeting. Clearly the bookies think that adding cheekpieces to Scandinavia is going to see the O’Brien colt (fifth at Ascot) turn around the form with Furthur (second at Ascot). Since handicap winner Hallelujah U was sixth and Titanium Emperor seventh it is hard to make a case for either of them reversing form with the Balding contender. With no obvious pace, will Moore set the fractions on the Ballydoyle runner? The other participant, Nightime Dancer, was well beaten in the Lingfield Derby Trial and stayed on past beaten horses to finish a never dangerous eighth in The Derby, which has somehow got him the Timeform top rating in this race. The six in the July Stakes (2.25) really only contains three possibles for the win. The maiden Do Or Do Not was second in the Coventry, drawn on the wrong side of the track, and now encounters another Ballydoyle colt, Brussels, who is probably better than his debut victory at The Curragh. The likely favourite is Maximized, a winner at Epsom on Oaks day beating the subsequent Windsor Castle winner. The five lining up for the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes (3.35) all have question marks against them. Arabian Crown was last seen being well beaten in the Gordon Richards; and he has been rejected by William Buick in favour of easy handicap winner El Cordobes, who followed that up with third in the Aston Park and a remote third in a York Listed race over fourteen furlongs. Wimbledon Hawkeye has yet to trouble the judge this term and fourth in the King Edward VII does not look good enough. So that realistically leaves the pair that contested the Hardwicke: expensive purchase Palladium retains Ryan Moore’s services after his fourth at the Royal meeting but a place ahead of him was Ghostwriter, winless since 2023 but has spent most of the time since running with credit in Group 1 events. This race has a dreadful recent record for favourite backers and is a Group 2 in name only this year. In the Bet365 Handicap (3.00), Invictus Gold, went in the notebook at the Guineas meeting when he destroyed a competitive field in a handicap despite taking the scenic route over the last six furlongs of the Rowley Mile. I know the old adage about topweights in three year old handicaps and it will probably come up here; however, the 11lb rise in the ratings give the horse he beat that day, today’s bottom weight American Style a squeak of turning the form around. Also, there are a couple of runners that are on a hat trick, Tawasol and Hucklesbrook, which will be hard to concede weight. Crestofdistinction is well in with a 6lb penalty but both his career wins have been on the kitty litter.
Hoping Comical Point will improve to win the July Stakes The Princess of Wales Stakes looks like a Listed Race and not a Group 2: pathetic. 3yos get large allowances at this time of the year and I'm hoping Wimbledon Hakeye will run up to his best to claim this.
