Five meetings on the Friday slate and the eye goes straight to Goodwood, but it’s actually Haydock that carries the deepest book of runners we want to be with. Bath fills out the afternoon, Pontefract takes the evening on the Flat, and Worcester gives us a couple of jumpers to round off the day.
Goodwood is where the casual punter will spend most of their time and there’s plenty to get involved with. Night In Vegas is the obvious one in the 1:57, a debut winner at Ascot last time who got on top late in a contest with a properly hot look to it. Eve Johnson Houghton has the juvenile in fine order and we’re happy to take a short price. Bahadur in the 3:07 is the other we lean on, a horse who rattled off a hat-trick on the all-weather in the autumn and looked to need the run when fifth at Newmarket on his reappearance. Cieren Fallon stays on board and the trip is right. Later on we’ve taken three swings in the 5:27, including Nogo’s Dream and Glamorous Breeze at fair each-way prices.
Haydock is the meeting with breadth. Sky Majesty in the 2:55 is one we feel strongly about, a Listed and Group 3 winner at Naas last summer who stuck on at Newmarket first time back and was very much beaten by a bias towards prominent racers. He’ll come on for that blow-out and the trip and ground both suit. Pat’s Cash, Bnaider and Imperial Trooper all carry confidence prices, and we’ve thrown a smaller each-way dart at Blue Mantle in the closer.
Bath is where the eye-catcher of the afternoon sits in our view. Jaan Ki Tukri ran second of seven at Newmarket last time over five furlongs, racing front rank just like she did when third at Newbury before that. The Clive Cox filly is held in proper regard and the form she’s been bumping into reads well for a drop in class. Big Win and Escape Plan are the other two we’ve gone in heaviest on.
Evening punters get Ricky Punting at Pontefract in the 6:52, only his third start after plugging on for second at Hamilton last week. The trip and surface look ideal and there’s clearly more to come.
Yesterday gave us four winners from twenty-six, headlined by Fort Augustus at 4.5 and Alpine Sierra at 3.5, with Moostar and Pointe Bleu among the placers. Onto the Friday card.