Rest of U.K. and Irish racing

In an absolutely crazy piece of race planning, there are also top-class cards at York and Ascot today, as well as racing at Chester, as well as Tipperary in Ireland and racing this evening at Salisbury and Hamilton. Many of the top jockeys are in action at York, where the John Smith´s Cup, a valuable handicap over 10 furlongs at 16.15, is the main event. It is certainly significant that Sir Michael Stoute sends Ryan Moore here to partner Modun, who was a disappointing favourite over further at Royal Ascot. With the stable now in much better form, he looks very dangerous. The lightly-raced Pekan Star (Roger Varian/ Neil Callan) missed Ascot to wait for this and could easily complete a hat-trick here, while Beachfire (John Gosden/ William Buick) and Lost in the Moment (Saeed bin Suroor/ Mikael Barzalona), first and second at Royal Ascot, are also dangerous in a wide-open event. The handicaps at 15.40, over 1 3/4 miles, and 16.55, over a mile, also have 20 runners and look equa lly difficult. Our tentative choices here are Theology (Jeremy Noseda/ William Buick) in the former and Georgebernardshaw (John Quinn/ Micky Fenton) in the latter, but almost anything is possible. The listed race over 5 furlongs that opens the card at 15.05 looks more straightforward and we expect CD specialists Borderlescott (Robin Bastiman/ Callan) and Hamish McGonagal (Tim Easterby/ David Allan) to dominate the finish.

Big race at Ascot is the Group Two Summer Mile at 16.45; only 6 runners here, and one of them Cityscape (Roger Charlton/Pat Cosgrave) is doubtful because of the fast ground. Dick Turpin (Richard Hannon/ Pat Dobbs) looks the likeliest winner here, athough Red Jazz (Barry and Michael Hills) and Side Glance (Andrew Balding/ David Probert) could be dangerous. Balding and Probert have another chance with Dungannon in the 6 furlongs handicap at 15.30, another very tricky race. Our preference here is for Ritual (Noseda/ John Fahy), going for a five-timer, and bottom weight L´ami Louis (Henry Candy/ Frankie McDonald).

Main event at Chester is the listed race over 7 furlongs at 17.35. Awzaan (Mark Johnston/Liam Jones) was a very smart 2yo but has struggled a bit since; however he should still be good enough to win in this company.

There is also an Irish listed race for 2yo´s over 5 furlongs at 16.40 at Tipperary. Only 5 runners, and David Wachman has two of them, Experience (Willie Lee) and Requinto (Wayne Lordan), who could well take the first two places.