Karl Burke-trained filly has proved a reliable prospect at the highest level and should shine in the feature race at NewburyThis year’s Lockinge Stakes may not be full of top-class horses but it poses as tricky a puzzle for punters as almost any handicap. Remarkably, 13 of the 14 runners at Newbury are rated within 2lb of each other, the only outlier being Billesdon Brook, who has failed to build on her Guineas win.Laurens (3.40), the filly who chased her home that day, has since proved a much more reliable prospect at the highest level and can beat the boys here. Related: Stradivarius gets out of 'the nightclub' to secure Yorkshire Cup triumph Bangor 1.40 Purple King 2.15 Out For...
The loss of one of the biggest owners in the game is arguably the first truly significant setback for National Hunt racing since its bandwagon started to roll in the mid-80sToo big, some said of Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud racing operation. Too powerful, too all-pervasive, a threat to the spectacle and the competitiveness of the game. Well, over the course of the next five years, we will all come to discover what an O’Leary-less jumping game looks like and his detractors may well end up concluding that you need to be careful what you wish for.Few who follows the sport closely, in Ireland above all, will not have seen several races over the last couple of years which looked a...
‘I took two paracetamol and got on with it,’ said Barry Dennis after heart scare at Lingfield on Good FridayBarry Dennis has tried to retire twice, that I know of, and yet Britain’s best-known bookmaker, now 78, was still to be found by his joint at Lingfield on Saturday. And this is the more remarkable because, he tells me, he has suffered two heart attacks within the past month.The first one happened before racing on Good Friday, when he was also at Lingfield. “I took two paracetamol and got on with it,” Dennis told me. “Lucky there were no photo-finishes that day. Related: Aidan O’Brien wins Derby trial at Leopardstown with ‘lazy’ Broome Wolverhampton 1.50 Celtic Artisan 2.20 Magical Molly...
Michael Wigham’s runner has impressed on his last two starts on the all-weather and is the pick of a crowded fieldWith pace in stalls one and 20 and previous winners from low, middle and high draws in the last 15 years with cut in the ground, there is no obvious place to start in the Victoria Cup at Ascot.Lightly raced horses with scope for improvement include Blue Mist and Cape Byron, while last year’s winner, Rip Orff,l always runs well over this track and trip. Related: Talking Horses: Willie Mullins can lift Chester Cup with Whiskey Sour Lingfield 1.25 Affluence 1.55 Tauteke 2.30 Cap Francais 3.05 Hollywood Road 3.40 Pretty Baby 4.15 War Glory 4.50 Tapisserie Continue reading...
Chester specialist Franny Norton steers smooth success Mark Johnston: Norton comes into his own on track like this Few jockeys in the long history of racing at Chester have ridden the Roodee as confidently as Franny Norton, but until Friday morning, the course’s most famous and historic race was still one of the few here that had eluded him.The runners went to post for the Chester Cup in a cloudburst of spectacular proportions, however, and as the downpour continued throughout the race, Norton drew on all his experience and trackcraft to win from front on Making Miracles, having set off from an apparently hopeless position in stall 16. Related: Circus Maximus grinds out Chester win as O'Brien looks to Dante...