Two Group Two races at York

The undercard at York today features two Group Two races, the Lonsdale Cup over 2 miles at 15.15 CET and the Gimcrack Stakes for 2yo´s over 6 furlongs at 15.50. With Ask a non-runner (lame), the former race is rather substandard, but quite open. Illustrious Blue (William Knight/ Jim Crowley) put up his best performance last time to won the Goodwood Cup from Electrolyser (Clive Cox/ Philip Robinson), with the Queen´s Free Agent (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes) a well-beaten fourth, but Goodwood form is notoriously unreliable at other tracks. King of Wands (John Gosden/ William Buick) has won 4 of his last 6 starts, including a listed race at Sandown over this distance from Illustrious Blue, with Opinion Poll (Michael Jarvis/ Frankie Dettori) third and Samuel (Gosden/ Eddie Ahern) fourth. Although it is possibly illogical, we go for Opinion Poll here, although some rain would be welcome.

The Gimcrack is also an open affair. Approve (William Haggas/ Ahern) must give away weight and looks pretty exposed, so we prefer Temple Meads /Ed McMahon/ Jimmy Fortune), an easy winner of the Super Sprint at Newbury over 5 furlongs, but probably equally effective over this trip. Crown Prosecutor (Brian Meehan/ Martin Dwyer) and the once-raced Shropshire (Barry and Michael Hills) must also be seriously considered.