Friday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Speaking of JP McManus, as I was doing in the paper this morning, the numbers involved in his operation are astonishing. His tally of runners in Ireland, in particular, has been climbing steeply over the last decade, taking him to 914 in the last season.
To put that in context, there are only about 200 jumps fixtures in Ireland each year. McManus is backing the sport in his home country to the tune of more than four runners per meeting, on average.
Remember the days of Istabraq and Baracouda and First Gold? McManus was, obviously, a very big name in the game back in the 2000-01 season when they all won Grade Ones. But, in jump races across Britain and Ireland, he has more than four times as many runners and winners per year as he had in those days. He must flick on the telly sometimes and think, ‘Oh. I didn’t know that one was running.’ Or, ‘I’d forgotten I bought that one.’
Maybe one day you and I will be playing at that level. In the meantime, I’m playing in the 10-furlong handicap at Newmarket, in which there has been support for Charismatic Man (2.25) and the 15-2 is ebbing away as I type. He is not one of the several recent winners in this race and form figures of 76-4 hardly leap off the page but he could hardly be of more interest for this handicap debut.
He’s the only known full brother to Reliable Man, who won the French Derby and the Prix Niel five years ago, then went to Australia and won a Group One there. The mare has also produced two other Pattern winners by other sires.
Clearly, Charismatic Man could not sustain hopes of any kind of repeat, since he was sold out of Alain de Royer-Dupre’s yard after two modest efforts as a juvenile. He joined Ralph Beckett, was gelded and had his final maiden run when a respectable fourth at Chelmsford last month.
That form by itself would make him interesting, since the second and the third won maidens next time. But clearly the hope is that Charismatic Man can take a significant step forward, now that he goes up to a mile and a half, returns to turf and takes on older rivals from a very manageable mark of 72.
Beckett has remained among the winners recently, albeit not so much with his three-year-olds. He has booked John Egan, who won on his only ride for the yard in the past four years.
How exciting to be able to say, in the style of those old-school tipsters who knew everything, that I first saw one of today’s selections in a point to point. In fairness, Queen’s Bay (4.30) may have been pretty familiar to all of you from her early career under rules with Colin Tizzard and Jamie Snowden, but she then went pointing for Jack Barber and beat Pacha Du Polder (V Pendleton up) by a head in Dorset in January.
I can just remember thinking, as my wretched vehicle was towed out of the fathoms-deep car park, ‘That thing is a certainty for day one of the Charlie Hall meeting’. So, at any rate, Queen’s Bay will hopefully prove in the staying handicap chase at Wetherby today.
She has since joined Neil Mulholland and, after a couple of spins, was well fancied at Newton Abbot last time, where, alas, she unseated at the second. Cheekpieces go on today and she’s 7-2 for the retrieval mission. Her current mark is more than a stone below the one she had when she set out in handicaps four years ago.
Star Trouper (5.00) is the interesting one at 13-2 for the closing handicap hurdle. From the sharp Sophie Leech yard, he runs from the same mark as for quite an interesting handicap debut at Southwell last time, when he made significant late gains from an unpromising position.
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.
