Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury

The best race in the U.K. today is the Group Three Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury at 16.55 CET, also over a mile (another senseless clash!). This is Salisbury´s most valuable race of the year, and has been won several times by Andrew Balding. He now saddles Highland Knight (David Probert), who was a close third last year to his stable companion Tullius and followed up by winning at Baden-Baden. The Oettingen-Rennen could be on his programme again if he runs well today, as we expect. According to the ratings, the one he had to beat is Afsare (Luca Cumani/ Andrea Atzeni), but we don´t fancy this one over this distance ; he is best at ten furlongs and it is more than 3 years since he ran over this short a trip. The opposite is true of Professor (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes), who is moving up from 6 furlongs. Highland Knight stays further, but he is best at a mile and should be returned the winner over this trip today.
There is also a decent card at Newmarket this afternoon, with some very competitive handicaps. Seek Again (John Gosden/ William Buick) contests the 7 furlongs handovap for 3yo´s at 17.20; despite the small field, this is a hot little race and, as he has not run since October, we prefer Gold Hunter (Saeed bin Suroor/ Paul Hanagan), a close fourth over 6 furlongs here last time but probably better at today´s trip. Another one coming off a long break is Flow (Lady Cecil/ Tom Queally), who looks to have very lenient weight over 10 furlongs at 15.40. Cecil has already shown that she can get one ready, and we expect her and Queally to complete a double with Morpheus in the mile handicap for 3yo´s at 17.50; he has top weight here and while he is nowhere near as classy as his siblings (Frankel et al!) he should be good enough to score in this grade.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Crystal Nymph - Starlight Serenade - Tubeanie
2. Race: Jersey Brown - Bright Cecily - Warrendale
3. Race: It`s Taboo - Paradise Watch - Perfect Muse
4. Race: Prospera - Bantam - Pivotal Silence
5. Race: Afsare - Highland Knight - Professor
6. Race: My Own Way Home - Tregereth - Commandingpresence
7. Race: Lady Pimpernel - Lion Beacon - Bee Jay Kay