Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Newmarket’s card this afternoon will not be to everyone’s taste, being composed almost entirely of two-year-old races. If you’re the type of person who was enthralled by Exeter yesterday, this will probably not be for you, although, speaking as a tipster, there is something to be said for a card where none of the form to be studied goes back before April.
John Best seems to be ending the season strongly, which is necessary, because he has had a pretty thin 2016 and it has not been his only thin year in recent times. I was stunned to see that his four-year strike-rate in juvenile races is 3%, considering this is a trainer who made his name with two-year-olds a little less than a decade ago.
Clearly the road has not been smooth for him since he won the Nunthorpe with Kingsgate Native and the Windsor Castle with a 100-1 shot, Flashmans Papers. He also had the third in that race, Mullionmileanhour, who has a son running for Best in a nursery at Newmarket today.
Mullarkey (2.30) was allowed to start at 33-1 for his nursery debut at Goodwood 10 days ago but ran a big race to be third of 13 behind a couple of useful-looking sorts and gets to run off the same mark today. This is a strong race and I was expecting a bit better than 11-2 but it will do; he opened at 7-1 and it seems there are plenty of folk who fancy him after that eye-catching effort.
The 8-1 about Cracksman (4.15) could prove on the big side in the mile maiden. This debutant is a son of Frankel out of a mare who won at Listed level in France. His half-brother, Fantastic Moon (by Dalakhani), won his first two races, including the Solario of 2012.
Cracksman is with John Gosden, who has done well with Frankels this year, and would be a shorter price if he were the trainer’s only runner in the race. But Gosden also runs Stradivarius and Frankie Dettori is on that one, while Robert Havlin partners Cracksman.
Stradivarius is bred to need time and distance and looked a bit ploddy on his Nottingham debut a fortnight ago. Perhaps he will take a big step forward after that experience but he will need to. I’d rather take twice the price about his stablemate, bearing in mind that Gosden second-strings are not unknown to the winner’s enclosure.
Je Suis Charlie (4.50) is the nap at 4-1. He improved a barrel-load for his debut to win a Beverley maiden, rewarding significant support and looking as though he would improve again. The runner-up won a maiden next time and Je Suis Charlie looks quite leniently treated for this first nursery outing. He comes from the Michael Bell yard that remains among the winners.
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.
