Champions Day entries
From 1pm, the entries for Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday will be revealed. Gina Harding will be live with a Newmarket press conference to reveal the big names being aimed at the day and to discuss their chances with trainers including John Gosden and Henry Candy, and you can watch a live stream of it here.
Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
As a general rule, I think you’re best sticking to horses that have already shown enough ability to win the race for which you’re backing them. But from time to time I’m prepared to take a chance on a beast that needs to show significant improvement and Ma Peek (5.00) at Windsor today is one of those, the surrounding circumstances suggesting to me that he may very well outrun market expectations.
Ma Peek is a three-year-old with Brian Meehan and had three maiden runs for him from April to June. At that time, Meehan’s strike-rate was 6%. Since the start of August, Meehan’s string seem to have got over whatever was ailing them and have been scoring at 16%.
Bred to need a bit of time and distance, Ma Peek should now be closer to the finished article after a three-month break, as well as hopefully being fitter and healthier than when last seen. He starts in handicaps off a rating so low that it will surely prove lenient in time.
After all, Ma Peek is bred to be good, being a three-parts brother to Arch Rebel, four times a Listed winner in Ireland about a decade ago. He wears a first-time tongue tie today.
All in all, the 10-1 looks big to me. But then I have to remind myself that this is a horse who has shown basically no racecourse ability to date.
The case for Upavon (4.00) takes less assembling, he having won four of his last six and generally been excellent since joining Stuart Williams at the end of last year and being fitted with a tongue tie. There were clear excuses for the two defeats (one blown start, one failure to stay seven furlongs).
His rating continues to climb but he has won off a 10lb higher mark on the all-weather and I think there’s still room for him to do better on turf. The 7-1 is fine.
Finally, on a point of interest rather than a tip, Icespire makes her debut in the 2.50pm race at Salisbury and is currently 5-4. From the John Gosden yard, she is a Frankel half-sister to Special Duty, who has a place in my heart, since I somehow collected on her in two Classics, despite the fact that she wasn’t first past the post either time.
God bless the stewards. Anyway, the relevant point is that Special Duty was not just lucky but also very fast and it will be interesting to see if Icespire can compare. She wears a hood, which might end up being a regular thing for Frankel’s progeny.
We are no longer able to continue with competitions every week, but they will still run in the biggest weeks (Cheltenham, Aintree, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and maybe one or two others, as well as the Christmas quiz).
We’ll still have a Talking Horses each day for tips, analysis and news, so we very much hope you’ll join us to chew over whatever racing happens to be going on and post your tips or racing-related comments below.
