Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Hayley Turner rides again, is the news this morning. The best female jockey this country has produced will come out of retirement for what, we are told, will be the one and only time in order to compete in the Shergar Cup at Ascot in August.
Turner was part of the team of all-female riders that won the event last year and has seemed to love it since the first time she took part many years ago. She replaces Michelle Payne, the Melbourne Cup winner who has been sidelined by injury.
There’s a certain amount of push-back on social media this morning, with some folk suggesting Turner is taking up a place that could have been given to a younger rider more in need of the exposure. But the Shergar Cup has never been about raising the profile of the deserving, it’s about gathering as many big names as can be signed up and no female jockey in this country has a profile to match Turner’s.
The late inclusion last year of Sammy Jo Bell, the hot apprentice of that particular moment, worked very well but it was never part of the plan. She was called up to replace the injured Cathy Gannon and, alas, such a replacement may be needed again, since Gannon is still trying to recover from a foot injury. That could yet be the route into this Shergar Cup for someone like Josephine Gordon.
I managed to find a 25-1 winner in this slot yesterday and I gather that some of you were able to get 33s, doubtless because the bookies saw I’d tipped it and concluded there was nothing to worry about. Well done to anyone who backed it. The chance of me doing anything remotely similar the very next day seems, ah, remote, but I have at least found an interesting 12-1 shot in Chantecler (8.50) in Newbury’s last race tonight.
Now five, he joined Neil Mulholland in the autumn before proving pretty hopeless in three tries over hurdles. But it can take Mulholland a bit of time to work his magic and Chantecler did much better when returned to the Flat at Bath last month, finishing second after running too free.
From the same mark and less likely to be fresh here, Chantecler could be ready to win, especially with the much softer surface in favour of this son of Authorized. Cheekpieces go on for the first time and Sophie Killoran is one of the better apprentices in the race.
At Newmarket, 15-2 looks the wrong price about You’re Always Right (4.45), who made a winning debut last month at Windsor in a manner that suggested she would learn plenty from the experience. Her opening handicap mark looks fair and on balance I think a softer surface will help.
Tipping competition, day four
Our winners so far:
Monday
Sir Roderic 3-1
Young John 3-1
Vastly 7-2
Tuesday
French Legend 5-2
Soaring Spirits 2-1
Fear Glic 2-1
Wednesday
Edgar Balthazar 25-1
Marmajuke Bay 10-1
Sindarban 5-1
And our leader is:
mycopia23 +30
… who somehow dug out BOTH Edgar Balthazar and Sindarban yesterday, shooting into a healthy lead. Mai11 (+21) was the only other tipster to find Edgar Balthazar. The rest of you have work to do.
Today, we’d like your tips, please, for these races: 4.10 Newmarket, 5.00 Nottingham, 5.35 Newbury.
This week’s prize is a pair of tickets to Sandown for Eclipse day on Saturday 2 July, a week on Saturday. Time Test, The Gurkha and Taqdeer currently head the betting for a race that is always a highlight of each summer’s Flat racing, plus there will be a DJ set by Nick Grimshaw after the action on the track has finished. If you don’t win, you can buy tickets here.
As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today but you will start on -9.
In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.
For terms and conditions click here.
Good luck!
And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
