Newmarket: final day of season

The final card of 2011 at Newmarket features some very competitive racing, headed by 3 listed races, the first of which is the mile event at 15.05 CET. Godolphin have a strong hand here with 3 of the 9 runners. Jockey bookings suggest that Ecliptic (Frankie Dettori), an easy winner at Salisbury after 15 months off the track, is the stable´s number one, but the consistent Secrecy /Kieren Fallon) is actually higher-rated.

We don´t believe the South African Irish Flame (Mike de Kock/ Richard Hughes), running for the first time since the Meydan meeting and probably over too short a distance, but Confront (Sir Michael Stoute/ Ryan Moore) could be a threat; he has been sacrificed as pacemaker for Harbinger and Workforce, but is pretty useful on his own account as well.

The race for 2yo fillies over a mile at 16.55 looks very open. None of the runners are rated above 88, but plenty of them look capable of great improvement and in fact 10 of the 12 runners were last-time-out winners, 3 of them unbeaten after just one start. Godolphin won this last year with subsequent 1,000 Guineas and Irish Oaks winner Blue Biunting and could go close again with Tactfully (Mahmood al Zarooni/ Dettori), but Oojooba (Roger Varian/ Moore) also looks dangerous.

The third listed event is over 10 furlongs at 17.25; two Godolphins here as well, but neither looks good enough, and we prefer the consistent Jet Away (Sir Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally) and Dux Scholar (Stoute/ Moore), both owned by Khalid Abdullah.

The card opena with two divisions of a maiden race for 2yo fillie with well-bred debutantes from some of the top stables; we would not be surprised to see Fleur de Cactus at 14.00 and Keene Dancer, half an hour later, run well, both representing the Stoute/ Moore combination.

The big betting race here is the mile handicap at 16.15 with 20 runners. The most interesting runner is Farhh (Saeed bin Suroor/Silvestre de Sousa), out of German Group One winner Gonbarda, who won his only start in excellent fashion; but that was over a year ago, and Frankie Dettori prefers Roayh. However we go for an outsider here, Benandonner (Mike Murphy/ Martin Lane), who always runs well at this track and seems nicely handicapped.

The other flat racing is at Ayr this afternoon and Wolverhampton this evening, but both meetings should be left well alone, and there are far better betting opportunities elsewhere, and in addition, the ground at Ayr will be very testing after heavy rain.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Balady - Fleur De Cactus - Proximity
2. Race: No Compromise - Keene Dancer - Salacia
3. Race: Ecliptic - Secrecy - Confront
4. Race: Mojave - Repeater - Rougemont
5. Race: Dubawi Sound - Robemaker - Justonefortheroad
6. Race: Oojooba - Tactfully - Abishena
7. Race: Jet Away - Dux Scholar - Retrieve
8. Race: Intercept - Rash Judgement - Beckermet