Saturday, October 30, 2010

Newmarket, Wolverhampton and Dundalk

The Godolphin stable is in fantastic form at the moment - 4 winners yesterday and we predicted all four!- and we expect them to carry on the good work at Newmarket this afternoon, when Ragsah can win the listed race for 2yo fillies at 16.00 CET and Nafura the fillies handicap over 1 1/2 miles at 17.10, both trained by Saeed bin Suroor and ridden by Frankie Dettori. Ragsah was 4th in the Cheveley Park here, easily the best form in the race and there seems no reason why Sharnberry and Sweet Cecily, well behind then, should do any better this time. Nafura finished 4th over this CD 6 weeks ago behind Calatrava Cape(John Dunlop/ Ryan Moore) with Critical Path (Andrew Balding/ Jimmy Fortune) 5th, but at these weights we hope that Nagura can reverse the placings.The 6 furlongs race at 17.45 has interesting conditions, as only 2yo´s and 3yo´s are able to run. The juveniles receive a stone from their elders and usually win, and we expect Morache Music (Peter Makin/ Silvestre de Sousa) to be another winner for the younger generation today; Ginger Ted (Richard Guest/ Jean-Pierre Guillambert) looks the best of the 3yo´s. Also at Newmarket, Inpursuitoffreedom (Charlie McBride/ Julie Burke) an easy winner at Yarmouth last week, is expected to follow up under a penalty in the apprentice handicap at 16.30.

The only other flat racing today is this evening on the all-weather at Wolverhampton and Dundalk (Ireland). t Wolverhampton Paul Hanagan hopes to increase his lead over Richard Hughes in their race for the jockeys championship. This currently stands at 6 after Hughes rode a double here last night, but Hanagan has much better prospects this evening, and can win on Whispering Spirit at 18.40 and One Cool Bex an hour later.

The best race at Dundalk is the 6 furlongs handicap at 20.30. Most of the Irish runners are course specialists who have met each other repeatedly, including Copper Dick and Mountain Coral, first and second in this a year ago, so we prefer the two British raiders, Noverre to Go (Tom Dascombe/ Richard Kingscote) and the lightly-weighted 3yo Take Ten (Mark Johnston/ Greg Fairley).