Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
In the post-Royal Ascot hubbub, I’m not hearing the name of Le Brivido mentioned as often as it should be. Perhaps it’s because he’s French-trained or that his race last week was only a Group Three or that it seems a long time ago, having been on Wednesday.
But Le Brivido’s performance in landing the Jersey has stayed with me and I can’t imagine wanting to oppose him in his next race, wherever that happens to be. Andre Fabre’s horse raced up the unfavoured centre of the track, along with most of his rivals, for the first three-quarters of the race and then, having seen them off, had to edge over to the stands’ side and take on horses who’d been on better ground against the near rail to that point.
It was a really likeable performance in less than ideal circumstances. It also suggests that Brametot, who beat him in the French Guineas and then won the French Derby is a real top-notcher. The best three-year-olds might be in France this year.
Today’s bread and butter racing includes a Wolverhampton card this afternoon, where Lucky Di (4.15) might be overpriced at 9-1. She went winless through last year but her mark has crashed as a result and there was some promise in her reappearance second in a seller. This was the scene of her most recent victory, in September 2015, and she’s 10lb lower now. She’s trained by Peter Hedger, whose runners are going well just now.
At Windsor tonight, Open Wide (7.20) has been supported into 15-8 for a small-field sprint handicap. From the Amanda Perrett yard that was among the winners at Ascot, he improved for the fitting of cheekpieces when second here a fortnight ago. The winner went up 8lb and won again, so it looks as though Open Wide bumped into one. Hopefully he can go one better under Andrea Atzeni.
Tips for all Monday racing, by Chris Corrigan
Chepstow
2.00 Kiribati 2.30 Jinkie Pink 3.00 Dark Pearl 3.30 Priors Brook 4.00 Quantum Dot 4.30 Quite A Story 5.00 Opening Time
Southwell
6.10 Celtic Tune 6.40 Court King 7.10 Cape Caster 7.40 San Quentin 8.10 Mystic Sky 8.40 Fled Or Pled 9.10 Sweet Holly
Windsor
5.50 Strategic 6.20 Plutonian 6.50 Meshaykh 7.20 Open Wide (nb) 7.50 Lightening Dance 8.20 Many Waters 8.50 Lightoller
Wolverhampton
2.15 Retrieve 2.45 Super Julius 3.15 Fab 3.45 Five Star Frank 4.15 Lucky Di 4.45 Bridle March 5.15 Right About Now (nap) 5.45 Makhfar
