Queen Mother´s favourite race

The Grand Military Gold Cup, to be run over 3 miles at 16.05 CET at Sandown this afternoon was known to be the favourite race of the late Queen Mother, who would always present the trophies. A chase for military amateur riders (both male and female), it is not a great race in terms of quality, but has a long tradition. Jody Sole (a man despite the name) rode the winner last year for Paul Nicholls and we expect a repeat today with Polisky. Tafika (Paul Webber/ Max Chenery) runner-up last year, now goes for the easier Queen Mother Memorial., another race for amateurs over a shorter distance at 17.15. He should go close but we hope that Fredo (Ian Williams/ Harry Wallace) will score for the first time in three years here; although bred in Ireland he has a German pedigree, being by Lomitas out of an Acatenango mare and is very well handicapped on the best of his old form.Anotzher one who is well handicapped is Westaway (David Arbuthnot/ Tom Cannon), who carries a 7 lbs Penalty for lkast week´s easy win at Newbury in the handicap hurdle at 16.40; he has been put up 12 lbs, so that he is in theory 5 lbs well in now. Another recent winner Spencer Lea (mndrew Price/ Noel Fehily) is an obvious danger. Jody Sole also rides Old Way for Venetia Williams in the opener at 15.00, another amateur race, this time over hurdles; his form is pretty awful, but he is the best-bred horse running today as the half-brother to Arc winner Solemia, and perhaps this experienced rider can persuade him to put his best foot forward this time.
Racing at Ayr goes ahead after an early morning inspection, but the ground will be bad and there are some tiny fields, so that there are few favourable punting opportunities and the same is true at Leicester. We do however have a sneaking fancy for oldtimer Thedreamsstillalive (Jim Old/ Harry Bannister) at 16.50 at the latter track; at 14 he is the olddest horse in action today, but he runs his best races here and has little to beat.
The only runner of interest in this evening´s two all-weather meetings is Future Security (Christian von der Recke/ Joey Haynes) who runs in a 1 1/2 mile handicap at 20.30 at Wolverhampton. The ex-Godolphin horse returned from 16 months off to win the Grosser Preis von St.Moritz for his new German connections. In theory he must be as good thing today with only a 6 lbs penalty for that valuable success, bjut experience has shown that the St.Moritz form must be taken with a large dose of salt. He is to remain in England after this evening´s race.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Should I Stay - Great Link - Alanjou
2. Race: Bullet Street - Greywell Boy - Wings Of Smoke
3. Race: Polisky - Bradley - Le Reve
4. Race: Westaway - Spencer Lea - Waldorf Salad
5. Race: Fredo - Craiglands - Tafika
6. Race: Mountain King - A Tail Of Intrigue - Fight Commander