13:30 Newmarket – Min Huna
13:50 Ascot – Relief Rally
14:05 Newmarket – Afentiko
14:25 Ascot – Hamish
14:40 Newmarket – Darnation
15:00 Ascot – Vadream (each-way)
15:20 Redcar – Billboard Star
15:35 Ascot – Volterra
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
ITV Racing Saturday comes from Newmarket, Ascot and Redcar, starting here with a fillies’ handicap over 1m2f. This might be pretty easy for MIN HUNA, even though the handicapper has shoved her up 8lb for an impressive win at Sandown. The lightly raced improver will need more here but stays well and is bang in form. Any juice in the ground is unlikely to be a worry.
ITV get underway at Ascot with the Listed Rous Stakes over 5f. RELIEF RALLY is becoming a cliffhorse for me this season, but there will be a strong pace here, and her stamina should come into play in the closing stages when she can swoop home for Kieren Fallon and William Haggas. My selection kept on well behind No Half Measures at Newbury last time and while conditions won’t be quite as testing here, she should be bang there.
This is a valuable sales race for juveniles over 6f. AFENTIKO has to give weight away and is dramatically down in trip, but she should still run well for Paul and Oli Cole. I liked her at Windsor over this trip earlier in the season, and since then, she’s been running over 7f/1m, including when second in heavy ground in a Listed race in France last time. It’s not ideal coming back 2f on a faster surface, but she should be bang in the mix.
This is the Group 3 Cumberland Lodge Stakes over 1m4f. HAMISH has been disappointing lately and at the age of eight, you wonder whether time is catching up with him. That all said I don’t think he liked the artificial at Kempton last time even though he has won on it before, and you only go back three runs and he chased home Luxembourg in the Group 1 Coronation Cup. With a mark of 115 and some juice in the ground, he should be back to winning ways.
Up in class here for the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes for fillies and mares over 1m. There are some top-class fillies in here and if the mare Nashwa is anywhere near a peak after 189 days off the track, she will be hard to stop. I’m going for a shock in the hope of plenty of give still in the ground. DARNATION could quickly get an uncontested lead and she stays very firmly. She won a Group 2 in Germany in May from close to the pace and she’s not a bad type at all with an easy lead. Karl Burke trains and Sam James rides. Remember, she beat the much better fancied See the Fire in the May Hill at Doncaster. Stable is in hot form.
A Group 3 in the Bengough Stakes over 6f. If the ground remains with some give, VADREAM might return to winning ways here for Charlie Fellowes and David Egan. The mare has run a lot this season and she’s not always been at her best. That said, her fifth behind Khaadem in the Jubilee Stakes at the Royal Meeting was a belter and she should get a pace to run here with Apollo One in the line-up.
One on ITV from Redcar in the Listed Two-Year-Old Trophy over 6f. It’s a huge field and this is up for grabs. I’ll chance BILLBOARD STAR for Eve Johnson Houghton and Charlie Bishop. The gelding comes here with a high rating and ran well in heavy at Newbury last time when third in the Mill Reef for all that was not the best renewal of all time. Again, I have to hope the low numbers have a chance.
A handicap over 7f. VOLTERRA might want the ground to be too soft, but he went with some juice in his younger days and he comes here in great form after a fine second at York when he was last seen. A low number might not be a disaster, as I feel Volterra likes to do his own thing out front. So, hopefully, he can get clear and stamina is certainly no issue if he does. Goes for Shane Gray and Kevin Ryan.
So best of luck and pray for Yeeehaaas. You hear me Paddy?
13:30 Newmarket – Min Huna
13:50 Ascot – Relief Rally
14:05 Newmarket – Afentiko
14:25 Ascot – Hamish
14:40 Newmarket – Darnation
15:00 Ascot – Vadream
15:20 Redcar – Billboard Star
15:35 Ascot – Volterra
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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