ACE TRAINERS IN CLOSE CONTEST WORTH MILLIONS: The four-day York Ebor Meeting starts tomorrow, with a huge prizemoney surge that comes at a time when five stables are in fierce competition at the highest level with the highest total at this stage of more than £17million already in the bank. Daqman checks out the Knavesmire army, squad by squad.
TODAY: SUPERNAP by the sea at Brighton in a surprisingly good class race for the track.
LINE-UP FOR THE BATTLE OF YORK
Five-yard trick! Here are the aces they can play at York this week, as five stables do battle each with £3million-plus in prizemoney already won in 2018. The also-rans are at least a million behind!
£3.8m John Gosden The punter’s godsend, Mr Enable. Unlike most of his rivals, the 6’ 5” master of Clarehaven has earned most of his prizemoney from straight wins, with a 26% strike rate and has had 12 Group winners this season.
YORK SQUAD: lrajaa, Angel’s Hideaway, Coronet, Lah Ti Dar, Legends Of War, Muntahaa, Roaring Lion, Sevenna Star, Stradivarius, Weekender, Without Parole.
£3.5m Aidan O’Brien Second is not a placing that Ballydoyle likes to accept but O’Brien’s hardly languishing behind Gosden. Despite a strike rate of only 9% in England, he’s had 10 Group winners and is right on his tail, earnings wise.
YORK SQUAD: Battle Of Jericho, Broadway, Bye Bye Baby, Coral Beach, Curly, Declaration Of Peace, Erin, Fairyland, Fantasy, Flattering, Forever Together, Gossamer Wings, Hence, Idaho, Just Wonderful, Kew Gardens, Land Force, Magic Wand, Nelson, Saxon Warrior, Sioux Nation, So Perfect, The Irish Rover, The Pentagon, Van Beethoven, Washington DC, Zabriskie
£3.3m Mark Johnston As many winners as four of our top five put together, albeit from nearly 1,000 runners. Yet his 18% strike rate is topped by only six of the 30 leading yards, though (at minus 180 to level stakes) he’s not one to follow blind.
YORK SQUAD: Aquarium, Caplin, Chapelli, Dream Today, Hochfeld, I’m A Dreamer, Indian Sounds, Kalagia, Love Dreams, Lake Volta, Lucky Deal, Main Edition, Masham Star, Persian Moon, Poet’s Society, Prairie Spy, Rastacap, Rebel Assault, Rufus King, Sir Ron Priestley, Sky Defender, Sofia’s Rock, Soldier In Action, Star of The East, Time To Study, Titi Makfi, Vale Of Kent, Watersmeet,
£3.3 Sir Michael Stoute ‘Stoutie’ and my old friend David Elsworth have been in the game longer than I have, yet are still showing the young’uns how it’s done. An improver of the older horse, Sir Michael has landed 11 Group wins in 2018.
YORK SQUAD: Homeopathic, Melting Dew, Poet’s Word and Sun Maiden.
£3.2 Charlie Appleby Also with 11 Group wins and key to the Godolphin renaissance, Appleby betters John Gosden for percentage win prizemoney from a stunning strike rate of 29%, and has 37% success with first timers against Gosden’s 30%.
YORK SQUAD: Blue Point, Cross Counter, Culturati, Eynhallow, First Nation, Hamada, Old Persian, Walton Street, White Desert.
KEEP CALM: STORMY AT BRIGHTON
2.10 Brighton A surprisingly good contest for the track and especially the grade. This is a class 5 officially but in reality looks much better than that.
Leaving out the Amy Murphy trained debutant Just Later and Queen Of Jumeirah who only beat one home on her Newbury debut, it looks a battle between the remaining three with preference going to to the Luca Cumani trained Stormy Road.
This one was a sent off a 20/1 shot on debut at Newmarket when partnered by seven pound claimer Marco Ghiani. The combination nearly pulled off the shock win – failing by just three quarters of a length. The third and fourth from that have run well since and the form looks solid enough as often is the case with a Newmarket maiden.
She steps up quite significantly in trip which should suit on the limited evidence we have seen.
Loving Pearl was slowly away on debut and then out like a rocket last time out. On both occasions she has finished second and the extra trip today isn’t guaranteed to suit.
The Simon Crisford trained Al Mortajaz has the most experience but couldn’t justify favouritism in what looked a weaker race at Catterick last time out. It’s safe to assume the trainer wasn’t expecting today’s race to be quite so hot when making the entries.
4.30 Kempton This class three is by far and away the best race on the afternoon all-weather card at Kempton.
It presents an easier opportunity for the John Gosden trained Fennaan who was a course and distance winner here in April and has since being campaigned at a higher level in handicaps at Ascot, Goodwood and Newmarket.
He’s down 2lb in the weights after a subdued performance last time out at Goodwood where the soft ground (and track) might have been against him and is worth support back at this level.
Right Direction is heading the right way but looks a little short in the market for a horse making her handicap debut off 85.
6.20 Yarmouth The handicapper has only nudged up Lunar Deity by a pound after his win here last time out and presents the Stuart Williams trained runner with another good chance for victory.
He is preferred to top weight Busy Street whose only career win has come on the Fibresand at Southwell and doesn’t seem very keep on winning these days.
DAQMAN’S BETS (staked to win 20 points)
SUPERNAP BET 20pts win STORMY ROAD (2.10 Brighton)
BET 6.5pts win FENNAAN (4.30 Kempton)
BET 11.5pts win LUNAR DEITY (6.20 Yarmouth)
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