Hi all,
Inside today’s main piece I begin my look ahead to a feast of action in Britain and Ireland this weekend. Plus, I have a few pointer from this evening's Kempton card.
It’s all doom ‘n' gloom
A two runner race at Ripon yesterday saw Doom returned 1/25 and get beat. That loss means Doom became the joint short-priced loser in the history of British horse racing. I suppose it was ironic that Doom was beaten by horse call Karmology.
Looking Ahead To The Weekend – Part 1
After last weekend lull, it’s a busy one this week. On Saturday Irish Champions Weekend gets under way at Leopardstown and moves over to the Curragh on Sunday.
The feature race is the Irish Champion Stakes (3.20). King of Steel heads the ante post betting with French challenger Ace Impact and Mostahdaf likely non- runners.
Royal Ascot winner Tahiyra is expected to return in the other Group 1 race on the card the Matron Stakes (3.55).
There’s a strong undercard at Leopardstown with two Group 2s, a Group 3 and two likely ultra-competitive handicaps.
There’s also Group 1 action at Haydock on Saturday with the Betfair Sprint Cup (3.35). Commonwealth Cup & July Cup winner Shaquille will be a warm order to remain unbeaten in 2023. There’s also a Group 3 contest on the Haydock card.
That’s not the end of the Group action in Britain on Saturday. Kempton hosts its most valuable all-weather card of the year with the highlights being the Group 3 September Stakes (1:35) and Group 3 Sirenia Stakes (3:25).
ITV racing are covering the best of the action from Haydock, Kempton, and Ascot on Saturday afternoon. Although it’s not been confirmed at the time of writing I would expect them to also take the Irish Champions Stakes live.
There some much high class action this weekend that I haven’t had a chance to look at the races in detail. However, I do have some interesting trends for Betfair’s Sprint Cup.
Betfair Sprint Cup – Haydock
Looking at the last 10 renewals of the Betfair Sprint Cup which contain 10 winners from 129 runners, 30 places.
All the last winners ten winners of the race shared the three following traits:
Horses Age: 3 to 6
Stall: 2 to 11
Odds SP: 11/1 & under
Those horses returned 12/1 & bigger are 0 winners from 75 runners, 7 placed. Now of course trends often get busted but looking at bigger priced horses means your fishing in a very small pool.
Wednesday Preview
There are 5 meetings in Britain today and another 2 in Ireland. It’s a Wednesday in September. Now the race planners have got lucky with the weather. However, does a Wednesday in September need to have 7 fixtures? And do we really need three all-weather fixtures. To compound things the most valuable race in Britian is worth just £8,505 to the winner.
If I told you that I had taken an in depth look at this evening’s Kempton card, I would by lying. That said here are few pointers from the card.
Kempton
8:00 – Unlimited won on handicap debut at Newbury 8 days ago and he’ll be tough to beat under a 6lb penalty on polytrack debut. Lion Kingdom was well below form at Newbury 18 days ago but he’s better judged on his Newmarket second two starts back and does get the addition of the first time cheekpieces. Palio has shown ability in maiden/novice company, and he could be capable of better on handicap debut.
8:30 – Soar Above is an eight time winner at Kempton including three over C&D. It was a decent performance from the 8-year-old when 2nd of 7 at Newmarket last month and I can see an even bigger effort from him this evening with James Doyle booked. Mitrosonfire’s course from figures are 2122 and the 5-year-old was a but unlucky in the run when a 2 ¼ length 4th of 15 at Newmarket last time. He’s back to his last winning mark and shouldn’t be far away.
9:00 – Surrey Noir improved for the fitting of the cheekpieces when a short head 2nd of 11 over C&D 14 days ago. He’s just 1lb higher here and he can provide favourite backers with a winning end to the card.
Good luck with your Wednesday bets.
John