A feature of the first All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Lingfield on Good Friday last year was the faintly wide-eyed look on the faces of several track executives as they absorbed the immediate and undoubted success of their new £1m card. A course that struggles to get more than 500 paying spectators at most of its midwinter meetings was packed to capacity with nearly 9,000 in attendance, compelling evidence that the market for watching quality horses in competitive races is not limited to turf.
A year later, Lingfield’s hospitality areas and private boxes are sold out for its second Good Friday, and racegoers turning up to pay on the day are being advised to arrive early as the gates were closed before the third race last year. The £50,000 apprentice event which opened proceedings last season – the only handicap on the card – has been replaced by a £150,000 conditions sprint for three-year-olds, taking the total prize money to £1.1m. The inaugural Finals Day was an undoubted success, but the second has the potential to be another forward step, with Channel 4 Racing showing the first five races live too.
If there is a slight cause for concern before Friday’s card, it is the number of runners, with 74 declared for the seven races, down from 89 that went to post last season. Two races – the Three-Year-Old Mile and the feature event, the Coral Easter Classic – have single-figure fields, which is two more than last year, when all six of the championship events attracted at least a dozen starters.
While the numbers are slightly down, the quality is up, not least as a result of the Godolphin operation’s decision to keep a significant string at Charlie Appleby’s yard in Newmarket for the winter campaign. Appleby is responsible for four of the favourites at Friday’s meeting, including Tryster, in the £200,000 Easter Classic and likely to be the only odds-on shot on the card.
Tryster (3.45) did not run as a two-year-old and had only three starts last year, winning a Brighton maiden, but he was gelded before making his racecourse debut despite a high-class pedigree, suggesting that he was not an easy horse to get to the track.
Tryster has been a poster boy for all-weather racing this winter, however, winning on Tapeta at Wolverhampton and Polytrack at Chelmsford City, Kempton and Lingfield. He made up plenty of ground in the straight before winning the Winter Derby over this course and distance with something to spare, and since this will be just the eighth start of his career, it will be a surprise if he fails to complete an unbeaten all-weather campaign.
The markets suggest Appleby could easily return from Lingfield with four or even five winners, and his lightly raced Emirates Skycargo (2.40) is a value bet to beat the more exposed Lexington Times in the Three-Year-Old Mile.
Pretend is another runner from the yard with the potential to compete at a high level this summer, but is priced accordingly in the Sprint Championship. He has also yet to produce a run to match Chookie Royale’s outstanding front-running performance at Chelmsford in February, and at the odds on offer, he is worth backing to make all from stall four (2.10).
Sovereign Debt (nap 3.15), the runner-up behind Farhh in the Group One Lockinge Stakes in 2013, has revived his career on the all-weather this winter after a season off in 2014 and edged out Chookie Royale over seven furlongs last time.
He can complete his winter campaign in style in the All-Weather Mile, while Hidden Gold (next best 4.45), another Godolphin runner but this time for Saeed bin Suroor, is a good price to beat Appleby’s Anglophile in the Marathon. Khatiba (1.40), who has been kept for this, and Primrose Valley (4.15), a four-time winner already this year, also offer some value in the Filly & Mare event and Three-Year-Old Sprint respectively.
Ervedya, trained by Jean-Claude Rouget and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, was an impressive winner of the Prix Imprudence at Maisons-Laffitte on Thursday, a race that has included the subsequent 1,000 Guineas winner at Newmarket twice in its seven previous renewals.
Ervedya was a close third behind The Wow Signal, one of 2014’s leading two-year-old colts, in the Prix Morny last August and second to Aidan O’Brien’s Found, the ante-post favourite for the 1,000 Guineas, in the Prix Marcel Boussac in early October. Despite racing on heavy ground, Ervedya quickened impressively to beat Ameenah by one-and-three-quarter lengths and she is now top-priced at 14-1 for the fillies’ Classic on 3 May. Ladbrokes, however, removed Ervedya from their ante-post market pending confirmation that she is an intended runner at Newmarket rather than in the Prix d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1,000 Guineas) at Longchamp in mid-May.
Miss France, last year’s 1,000 Guineas winner, finished second in the Prix Imprudence on her seasonal debut, while Natagora won both races in 2008.
Freddy Head’s Ride Like The Wind took the Group Three Prix Djebel on the same card and could now line up for the 2,000 Guineas on 2 May.
“I ran him in some tough races last year, but I always felt he was good,” Head said. “We could aim him at England, but I need to discuss it with his owners.
“Last year we took Charm Spirit [to the 2,000 Guineas] and because of the way the race was run it didn’t suit him, and I think he would have won in France [in the French 2,000 Guineas]. The way this one runs I think Newmarket will suit him, though. He has changed a lot this winter. He tends to be keen, but when he learns to race he will be very good.”
Head also confirmed that Solow, the impressive winner of the Dubai Turf at Meydan on Saturday, will make his next start in the Prix D’Ispahan at Longchamp on 24 May before lining up for the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot on 16 June.
