Friday’s best bets, by Greg Wood
The Champions have a single day, but the Future Champions have a weekend. It does not make a great deal of sense to me either, but it is what has emerged from several years of horse-trading to reshape Britain’s autumn programme. As a result, the first of two days at Newmarket includes four races for juveniles - and three for older horses, including the Group Two Challenge Stakes and the Old Rowley Cup, the big betting race of the day.
Still, the feature race on the card, the Group One Fillies’ Mile, is very much up to scratch, and may well include a future champion in its line-up, as it did 12 months ago when Minding, this year’s 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner, emerged victorious.
Five of the eight are quoted at prices that give them a realistic chance, but strict students of the form book will be surprised to find Sobetsu is the early favourite at around 9-4, given that she was three-and-a-half lengths behind Spatial, a 9-2 chance today, when she made her debut in a maiden on the July course in late 26 August.
Debut is the key word there, however, as Sobetsu needed six of the seven furlongs to form even the faintest idea of what was required. She showed the benefit of the experience in dramatic fashion on the Rowley Mile three weeks later, however, when she took a maiden over today’s trip by 10 lengths in a useful time without needing to be asked for a real effort. That form makes Sobetsu (3.10) the one to beat today and her current odds of 20-1 for next year’s 1,000 Guineas will evaporate in an instant if she can produce anything along similar lines.
On the undercard, Aclaim (2.40) is an interesting contender for the Challenge Stakes after making smooth progress through handicaps to take a Listed race last time out. Mrs Danvers (1.35) should take the opener, while Grecian Light (2.05) may offer some value against Andre Fabre’s Double Lady, whose only success to date was in a maiden. East Street Revue (3.55) looks the pick on the card at York.
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.
