Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
So Silvestre de Sousa has a couple of good rides for Mark Johnston at Leicester tonight. ‘Nothing new about that!’ I hear you cry. ‘The Scotsman and the Brazilian have been thick as thieves for years.’
This is true up to a point. I believe a modicum of tension has entered into their relationship recently, with the result that De Sousa has not been on any of Johnston’s 73 runners in the past fortnight.
Few partnerships have been more productive in Flat racing in the last couple of years. When De Sousa was champion in 2015, Johnston gave him 182 mounts and was rewarded with 41 winners (23%). Last year, they combined for 15 from 91 (16%).
It’s early days this year but Johnston has only given De Sousa five mounts so far. I thought it was pretty interesting that, after De Sousa rode Kilmah in the Nell Gwyn, Johnston opted to use Richard Kingscote on her in Sunday’s 1,000 Guineas, which De Sousa watched from the Newmarket weighing room.
The situation, as I understand it, is that a stable with as many runners as Johnston’s needs a bit of commitment from its jockeys. If the plan is to send four or five runners to some race-meeting, they want a rider who’ll say: “Great, I’ll ride whatever you send,” in the way that Joe Fanning and Franny Norton do.
De Sousa, apparently, would rather reserve the right to say: “I’ll ride A and B for you but I’ve got a better offer for the races you’ve got C and D in”. That’s his right but at the moment it seems to be costing him the chance to ride often for a trainer with the fire-power to make him champion again.
Anyway, I have them down for a double at Leicester tonight, which would make everyone happy for the time being. Mariee (7.00) travelled really kindly at Beverley a week ago but didn’t quite finish the job. I think she’s got a bit of potential at this distance and maybe even further and I’ll be interested to see if De Sousa can get something out of her on their first race together. She’s 3-1.
Later, Il Sicario (8.00) is a pretty generous 9-2, considering he’s unpenalised for landing an apprentice race last week. That was only his second handicap and, like a lot of Johnston’s this year, he seemed to get plenty of benefit for his reappearance run.
At 11-2, the Curragh-trained Six Silver Lane (3.30) looks the pick of the Ayr card. He’s only 1lb higher than when scoring on his last visit here and has been running well at Dundalk in recent months.
Tuesday racing tips
Ayr
2.00 Poet’s Reward 2.30 Sketch Book Venue 3.00 Warp Factor 3.30 Six Silver Lane 4.00 Burrishoole Abbey 4.30 Kingsley Klarion 5.00 Not A Bad Oul Day
Fakenham
2.10 Back To Balloo 2.40 Ohms Law 3.10 Fortified Bay 3.40 Queen Spud 4.10 Amron Kali 4.40 Monsieur Gibraltar
Ffos Las
2.20 Prussian Eagle 2.50 Coroberee 3.20 Cole Harden 3.50 Positively Dylan 4.20 Ugolin De Beaumont 4.50 Rhaegar
Exeter
5.45 Brahms De Clermont 6.15 Swatow 6.45 Abricot De L’Oasis 7.15 Gowanauthat 7.45 Brandy And Red 8.15 Equus Amadeus
Leicester
6.00 Ghepardo 6.30 Kachess (nap) 7.00 Mariee 7.30 Rotherwick 8.00 Il Sicario (nb) 8.30 Pursuing Steed
