Grandeur (tipped at 5-2) outclassed his rivals at Goodwood yesterday to take our level stakes profit over the past 21 selections to 18 points (85%). Long may it continue! Doncaster was an extremely profitable meeting with winners on all four days and the Town Moor form is likely to dictate whether or not we make a profit at Newmarket this week.
The Cambridgeshire meeting is a curious mixture of exciting two-year-old races and tricky handicaps featuring horses that are just possibly going over the edge after a long summer. With that in mind, I’m planning to stick to horses with recent form and not with too many miles on the clock.
The selection for Day 1 has to be John Gosden’s rapidly improving filly Phiz in the 3.10 race. This filly was having only the fourth start of her career when beaten by The Lark in the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster two weeks ago. My regular readers will know that I am a great fan of The Lark having supported her in the Oaks and it is not surprising that she had too many guns for Phiz in the closing stages.
You may recall that it was the race where Hayley Turner suffered a terrible fall after her horse clipped heels. Fortunately both horse and rider were relatively unscathed but another feature of the race was the performance of the runner-up. Phiz is still learning her trade so she was a bit on and off the bridle but William Buick must have felt confident approaching the furlong pole. He turned his head to see where the dangers were and got the shock of his life to see Jamie Spencer breathing down his neck on The Lark!
Michael Bell’s filly ran out a good winner but Phiz responded well to pressure and the pair were four lengths clear of the third. There are some decent fillies in opposition tomorrow and Lady Cecil’s Court Pastoral could pose a threat along with Sir Michael Stoute’s Astonishing. Some lucky punters have snaffled up 9-2 about Phiz before I could get this posted but 7-2 still looks good value.
I’ll be interested to see how Nezar gets on in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes (3.40) as he impressed me at York and again at Chester. Repeater (4.15) also went into my notebook with a promising run in the Doncaster Cup. If you like well-bred two-year-olds, how about these two newcomers in the first on Thursday; King’s Land (New Approach – Kazzia) and Touch The Sky (Sea The Stars – Love Divine). They don’t get much better than that!
Phiz 3.10 Newmarket 7-2 Coral
