Handicaps at York and Sandown

Once again, the day´s sport is dominated by handicaps, and there are some competitive ones at both York and Sandown, although both tracks will be staging better racing tomorrow. However with Royal Ascot next week, there is no point in expecting many group class runners this weekend.

York´s races are better, but the question here is always: what are the Easterbys up to? Mick and his nephew Tim are very shrewd operators who love to have it off at this track, and they have multiple runners today. Our guess is that Tim´s best chances are Silvery Moon (David Allan) at 15.30 CET -not related to the celebrated German horse ofg the same name- and Chivers (Graham Gibbons) at 17.40, while Gibbons can also score on Mick´s Kalk Bay at 16.40. The hottest race here is the fillies handicap over 6 furlongs at 17.10, and the two top-weights Willbeme (Neville Bycroft/ Phillip Makin) and Lulu the Zulu (Mick Appleby/ Andrew Mullen) are both consistent and classy performers who have earned their high rating. We shall however take a chance on Mu´ajiza (Paul Midgley/ Tom Queally), who was just behind Lulu in a listed race last time and is now 4 lbs better off; her trainer is making quite a name for himself in these sprint handicaps.

At Sandown the 10 furlongs handicap for 3yo´s at 17.20 has attracted a decent field, with some unexposed types who could be big improvers- notably Muntadab (Sir Michael Stoute/ Paul Hanagan), who won his maiden very easily and could well be better than a handicapper. The same applies to the 3yo fillies handicap over a mile at 15.40, in which Fruity (Clive Cox/ Andrea ATzeni is just preferred. The 10 furlongs handicap for older horses at 16.50 could go to top-weight Rembrandt van Rijn (David Lanigan/ George Baker); he earned trhe dreaded Timeform squiggle last year for his wayward performances, but the penny seems to have dropped this season and he can win his third race in succession.