Find all previous Seymour Biz racing previews in his weekly column: Saturday Horse Racing Tips.
One of the top middle-distance races of the season is on the Sandown card this week, the Coral-Eclipse, and it is a shame only four horses are left in at the 48-hour stage. The race looks like a match between O’Brien’s Paddington and Gosden’s Emily Upjohn and I just give the vote to the Gosden filly to take this £425,000 contest.
There are three further races being televised from Sandown, including a Group 3 and a Listed race. The other card on ITV is at Haydock where the highlight is one of their top handicaps of the season, the Old Newton Cup. This is backed up by the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks and a further handicap.
So seven races in all and except the Eclipse, they all look pretty competitive. So here are my thoughts for the value bets and this week’s Lucky Fifteen.
Saturday Lucky Fifteen
1.50 Sandown. Get Ahead
2.25 Sandown. Perotto
3.00 Sandown. Stenton Glider
3.15 Haydock. Cumulonimbus
Bet this lucky 15 now on Bet365
Beginning at Sandown Park with the 1.50 the Coral Charge a Group 3 over a sharp 5 furlongs. Michael Appleby’s Annaf might go off favourite after a fine run at Royal Ascot where he finished third in a Group 1 and had several of the horses he meets here behind him. One of those was Charles Hills Equilateral who finished fifth and I can’t really see him improving on that.
Hills also runs Equality who won a lowly handicap at Windsor last month and was well behind his stablemate at Haydock in May.
William Haggas’s Tiber Flow won a Group 3 over 6 furlongs at Newcastle last week and is quickly turned out to try and complete a double.
Clive Cox’s Get Ahead won a Listed race at Haydock in May then ran a fine second in a Chantilly Group 2 last month. He will be hard to beat and is the selection.
Cox also runs Diligent Harry who has done all his winning on the all-weather but he may go well here and be placed at a nice price.
The 2.25 at Sandown is the Coral Challenge a Class 2 handicap run over a mile. This is a very open contest with several horses vying for favouritism one of whom is Alice Haynes’s Indemnify who was a course and distance winner in May but this is a step up in class.
Charlie Johnson’s Dutch Decoy has found it hard to get his head in front this season and has finished runner-up on his last two outings latterly over this course and distance behind another Haynes horse Maysong last month.
Maysong comes here after that victory and is still low enough in the handicap rankings to feature.
Jamie Osbourne’s Ouzo ran a good race in the Royal Hunt Cup finishing sixth. However, he has not won for three years and probably needs an easier contest than this to get back to winning ways.
I prefer another Hunt Cup runner, Roger Varian’s Perotto, who went off favourite and finished tenth when drawn on the ‘wrong’ side. He won at Sandown as a 2-year-old and can put that Ascot run behind him.
The 3.00 is the Coral Distaff- a Listed race for 3-year fillies run over a mile. John Quinn has the favourite here with Breege after her close second at Royal Ascot. That race was a major improvement on her previous performance in the Irish 1000Gns.
John and Thady Gosden run Bridestones who disappointed at Royal Ascot after being hampered over the last quarter of a mile, better is expected.
William Muir and Chris Grassick’s Maggie’s Way surely comes here more in hope than expectation after winning a lowly Class 5 handicap at Nottingham in May.
Karl Burke has a couple of runners, Back See Daa and Miss Jungle Cat and the former looks the most interesting after her win at Newbury last month. She steps up in class but may go close.
But my preference is for Hugo Palmer’s Stenton Glider who was second in the German 1000Gns in early June. Her run in the 1000Gns at Newmarket can be forgiven. She was swallowed up when the groups merged. Prior to that, she had run a good second in the Fred Darling at Newbury and is taken to win this.
The big handicap of the day is at Haydock at 3.15- the bet365 Old Newton Cup Handicap run over 1m 4f. With 19 runners, this is always a very competitive race. The current favourite is William Haggas’s La Yakel who won well at Ascot last September but was unable to follow up at Newmarket in October. This is his first run of the season and he is probably best watched.
Haggas also has Gaassee in the lineup but he has failed to fire this season.
Andrew Balding’s Teumessias Fox has won twice, at Kempton and Newmarket, but then ran very poorly at Royal Ascot.
Hughie Morrison’s Maksud also flopped at Ascot and before that was slowly away at Chester. Improvement is required to feature here.
Eve Johnson Houghton’s Sheer Rocks comes here on a treble after wins at Ascot and Epsom. He is sure to go well and can hit the frame.
Another horse on a treble is Charlie Fellowes’s Cumulonimbus who won at Newmarket in May then came here to Haydock and won over this distance in June. He had an awkward start that day but still did enough to win and he is my pick for this.
Saturday Lucky Fifteen
1.50 Sandown. Get Ahead
2.25 Sandown. Perotto
3.00 Sandown. Stenton Glider
3.15 Haydock. Cumulonimbus
Bet this lucky 15 now on Bet365
Related Reading