Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Karl Burke is clearly keen for his Quiet Reflection to end the year as champion sprinter and said, during our press visit to his Middleham yard on Wednesday, that he doesn’t see how that accolade could go elsewhere if she wins on Champions Day a week on Saturday. I see his case but the worry for him would be that memories of Limato’s performance in the July Cup will endure.
Quiet Reflection was behind him that day but she’s a year younger and, as Burke pointed out: “Limato didn’t do what she did at three. There’s not many three-year-old sprinters that have done what she’s done.”
His filly carries herself like a queen in her home work, judging by what I saw on Wednesday, and we’ve all seen how strongly she travels in her races. Anyone could pick her out as a good horse. She is very easy to love.
Daily Bulletin (7.25) is rather less easy to love, for me, having proved in the Silver Cambridgeshire that he cannot translate his good all-weather form on to turf, not even fast turf, after I predicted that he would. Oh well, Godolphin’s useful three-year-old is back on the sand at Chelmsford tonight and backable at 5-2 for what looks a winnable contest.
Unbeaten in two all-weather runs, he shot three lengths clear of a subsequent winner around here last month. Tonight’s race is a conditions contest which, on the bare ratings, requires some improvement from him but John Gosden’s three-year-old is on a strong upward curve just now and is more appealing than his older Godolphin colleague Basem, at shorter odds.
Almost as progressive is the Newmarket trainer George Peckham, now in his third season and showing another improved strike-rate. He fields Estrella Eria (8.25) in the 10-furlong handicap later on the card and she looks worth sticking with, having won over course and distance from a basement mark three weeks ago.
It’s telling (in hindsight, alas) that Luke Morris was aboard for the first time as this filly showed her first useful bit of form at the sixth attempt. She should still be on a winning mark after a 7lb rise and I fancy her at 5-1, though this is a big field with other unexposed talents on show.
Neil Mulholland is literally (literally, mark you!) on fire, having won with all three of his runners on Wednesday. He could get an across-the-card double today, starting with Collodi (3.40) at the reopening Hereford, this gelding having won twice on the Flat since joining the Wiltshire trainer in the summer. The winner of two novice hurdles in 2014, he looks well weighted if Mulholland has got him back to that level and is 3-1.
Leg Two of the proposed Mulholland double is Zarliman (5.15) in a handicap hurdle for conditional jockeys’ at Exeter, where field sizes have stood up remarkably well in the face of fast ground. He’s 5-2 to build on his neck second at fast-ground Plumpton last time.
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.
