Rest of today´s racing

there is also plenty of good racing outside of Newmarket -too much of it in fact, with Ascot, York and Chester all staging strong cards. There are plenty of non-runners, but while at HQ they are because of the soft ground, at the other tracks they have had no rain and the ground is too firm!

3 non-runners have weakened the field for Ascot´s main feature the Group Two Summer Mile at 15.30 CET. The tough Mull of Killough (Jane Chapple-Hyam/ George Baker) was runner-up in this last year, with Guest of Honour (Marco Botti/ Martin Harley) third and Trumpet Major(Richard Hannon/ Pat Dobbs) sixth, and can go one better this time. Producer (Hannon/ Dane O´Neill) in fact finished in front of him last time at Royal Ascot, but we go for the more experienced runner here. Highland Knight (Andrew Balding/ David Probert), a Baden-Baden winner 3 years ago, could also go well. The 5 furlongs handicap at 14.55 is the big betting race here and Masamah (Botti/ Harley), drawn right on the rail, can repeat last year´s victory from Racy (Brian Ellison/ Pat Cosgrave), while 2013 third Zero Money (Hugo Palmer/ Neil Garbutt) is possibly drawn on ther wrong side.

The biggest handicap of the day is York´s John Smith´s Cup over 10 furlongs at 15.55. 4 non-runners here, but still wide open. The Queen´s Bold Sniper (Sir Michael Stoute/ Ryan Moore) just failed to win a similar race at Royal Ascot and must go close again. Ex-German Tahira (John Quinn/ Phillip Makin) had good form for Uwe Stech last year and looks one of many dangers. Ryan Moore has complained about the stupid clash of fixtures today and no doubt he could have been riding the favourites at all 4 meetings, but he has a good book here and we can easily imagine his winning 3 or even more races. He has however no ride in the 2 miles handicap at 17.40, in which we are very interested in Great Fighter (Saeed bin Suroor/ Andrea Atzeni), who is out of the smart German runner Evil Empire (by Acatenango).

At Chester, the enigmatic Glory Awaits (Kevin Ryan/ Ian Brennan) runs in the listed race over 7 furlongs at 16.25. He was second in the 2013 2000 Guineas and more recently seventh in the Queen Anne, and that form makes him almost unbeatable in this company -however he occasionally runs a stinker, so be warned! A better bet could be Arnold Lane (Mick Channon/ Sam Hitchcott) in the 6 furlongs handicap at 17.00. He was unlucky at Windsor last time and we have not forgotten the way he won at Munich last year.