JONATHAN HOBBS: Monmore takes over from Hove on RPGTV tonight – sharing the stage with Sheffield – and open-race fans are in clover with the build-up to the Ladbrokes Summer Festival.
Next week sees the start of Ladbrokes Gold Cup and Ladbrokes Summer Stakes Classic and a host of hopefuls for those competitions take their chance in trial stakes tonight, including the winners of both last year’s events – Seaglass Tiger and Sheldan – and both should go well in their prep races.
Indeed, if the quality of tonight’s races are anything to go by – not forgetting a decent trials session before racing – next week’s competitions (also on RPGTV) should be top drawer.
Let’s have a look at the races.
Monmore
6.09: Seaglass Tiger won last year’s Ladbrokes Gold Cup and looks in good heart ahead of his defence. He’s back from injury, winning races again, and impressed last week with a great effort and battle with Hiya Boyo. He just missed out then but can go one better.
Play: Seaglass Tiger
6.28: Sheldan looks the eye-catcher in this 630m Summer Classic warm-up and should go well. The kennel’s in good form, but she might just need the run, so Perrys Choice is taken to get first run into the turn and can keep pulling. Note a recent 35.02sec Romford win.
Play: Perrys Choice
6.58: Another cracking 630m contest where Coolavnany Bani is interesting upped in trip. She could break well although clearing King Dylan is key. Any coming together could see Southfield Code escape. He ran well at Hove, finishing third in the Regency.
Play: Southfield Code
7.36: Killeacle Gus is another interesting runner tonight upped in trip. He looks in good heart having finished third in the Sussex Cup and could get away as drawn if breaking well inside. King Lennon certainly makes the market, being more than capable on his day.
Play: Killeacle Gus
7.56: Plenty of chances in this 480m race, including one of the best in King Sheeran. However he’s not been timing the start of late so needs to find those trapping boots and the likes of Tasty Treat and Droopys Proven could get away. The latter has the draw.
Play: Droopys Proven
8.54: The clash between Smallmead and Droopys Catch looks intriguing. Both are lightly raced and the latter stepped up in trip impressively last week. However this is a rise in class and the well-drawn Smallmead could nip clear from the boxes if breaking.
Play: Smallmead
9.12: Another cracking race where Droopys Addition and Market Call both have impressive C&D wins, but can they clear the speedy Droopys Nadal? For that reason, might Queen Jessiej always be on the premises again. She also won well here last week – in a time, too.
Play: Queen Jessiej
9.28: The Monmore closer and Lenson Whelan will be popular as drawn inside, having notched up a few C&D wins. However Bockos Boss has scope for improvement after just five races and ran a decent trial, holding off kennelmate Sheldan which is no mean feat.
Play: Bockos Boss
Good luck all.
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