Hi all,
We’re rattling towards York’s Ebor Festival, which gets underway on Wednesday. My York juices are following but I can’t lie—I'm always disappointed when the Ebor Festival ends. Why, may you ask? It’s simple: it’s the last of the big summer flat festivals and signals that autumn is just around the corner.
The weather looks promising, though not particularly warm. Forecasts indicate only 2mm to 3mm of rain from Sunday through Thursday, so conditions should remain stable. Mind you I'm not sure I really trust British weather more than a coupke of days ahead. The course has been watered to maintain good to firm ground. For me its fingers crossed for quick ground, especially for the first couple of days.
Saturday’s Racing Recap: A Low-Key Affair
Saturday’s big race action was relatively low key. Newbury’s Group 2 Hungerford Stakes was the main highlight, along with Ripon’s Great St Wilfrid Handicap.
Just seven went to post for this year’s Hungerford Stakes, which isn’t totally surprising when you consider that York’s City Of York Stakes, also run over seven furlongs, is just seven days later. Saturday’s City of York Stakes is worth £283,550 to the winner, compared to just £70,888 for the Hungerford Stakes.
The Hungerford Stakes: A Race in Decline?
The Hungerford Stakes is the older of the two races, but the York race, which only had Listed status in 2015, is the race on the rise. This difference underscores how much more ambitious York racecourse management is compared to their Newbury counterparts. Moving forward, I think they either need to downgrade the Hungerford or move it to another date. They could even show real ambition, take on York, and offer £300,000 to the winner. I think there’s zero chance of the latter happening, so maybe it’s time the race lost its Group 2 status. It seems ridiculous to have two Group 2 contests over the same distance within a week of each other.
Tiber Flow Wins Thrilling Hungerford
This year’s Hungerford was weak for its Group 2 status. Despite predictions of a slow pace, they went a good gallop from the off, which helped produce a thrilling finish.
Once leader Popmaster was headed inside the final furlong, four horses were still in with a chance. Tiber Flow delivered the final blow to win by a nose from Witch Hunter, with Jumby a short head back in third and Kikkuli ½ length back in fourth.
Tiber Flow had his nose down just at the right time but it was a close-run thing. Given that I liked his stablemate Lake Forest for the race earlier in the week, maybe I should have been on him. As it happens, I didn’t have a bet in the race.
You must feel sorry for last year’s winner, Witch Hunter, who was slowly away, costing him the race. Despite being an unlucky loser, his profile suggests he wouldn’t be guaranteed to back up this effort next time.
Jumby, who won the race in 2022, was back in form. Kikkuli had every chance, but his keenness probably didn’t help his finishing effort. Connections of the 7/4 favourite will be disappointed that Frankel’s half-brother couldn’t win what looked like a weak race. Another disappointment was English Oak, who was one of the first beaten.
Despite an exciting renewal of the Hungerford Stakes, it doesn’t alter my opinion of the race in its present form.
Dare To Hope Storms To Great St Wilfrid Success
Ripon’s biggest race of the season, the Great St Wilfrid Handicap, worth £51,540 to the winner, went the way of the Richard Fahey-trained Dare To Hope. It proved a good race for the local trainer, who also had runner-up Ramazan.
Well inside the final furlong, it looked like Ramazan, who raced in the smaller far-side group, would prevail. However, he had no answer to his stablemate’s storming finish close home and was beaten by ¾-length. Dare To Hope didn’t have the cards fall right for him on his last two starts, but they did here with the money down.
I tipped up the well-backed winner for Victor Value subscribers at 8/1 on Friday, along with the third, Secret Guest, each way. After seeing Lyndon B go close on Friday and two second place finishes on Saturday, I was due a change of fortune. Sometimes you need to dare to hope.
Summerghand came from the rear to grab fourth place. He got behind in the early stages, and it’s impossible to win at Ripon from that position, but nothing was finishing as well as he was, which is typical of the 10-year-old. Connections of Summerghand will dare to hope the old boy can repeat last year's York win.
Great St Wilfrid Eyecatcher: Wobwobwob
Last year’s Ayr Silver Cup winner, Wobwobwob, who would have found the ground plenty quick enough, put in some solid late work to finish a 3 ¼ length fifth. He’ll no doubt head to Ayr to try to win the Silver Cup for a second year running. He’ll have a good chance provided he gets a favourable draw.
Letsbefrank
Before wrapping up my weekend review, I want to mention the Sky Bet Sunday Series. Initially, it was a refreshing addition to the racing calendar, and I genuinely looked forward to the meetings. Yesterday’s card at Pontefract didn’t inspire much excitement for me. However, the Jim Goldie-trained Letsbefrank stole the headlines when he became the first horse to win the Sky Bet £100,000 bonus for securing three victories in the series.
Letsbefrank task was made easier by three non-runners, including the short-priced favourite. However, he still had to work hard for a narrow short-head victory over Tenerife Sunshine. It’s worth noting that Billy Loughnane, aboard Tenerife Sunshine, nearly saved Sky Bet from handing over the £100,000. Congratulations to the Morrison's owners of Letsbefrank who did dare to hope.
With such a significant payout, it makes me wonder how long before Sky Bet might reconsider their sponsorship of the series. The accountants won’t be happy if £100,000 is going every year.
Monday’s ‘Lay or Play’
There were no ‘lay or play’ qualifiers on Sunday. Meanwhile, both of Saturday’s qualifiers were beaten.
There are two ‘lay or play’ qualifiers on Monday, both trained by Nigel Tinkler.
Will they be a ‘lay or play’ for you?
Good luck with your Monday bets.
John