Best bet for the horse racing Friday 14th June 2024 - Treasure Time runs at Chester

The three-year-old gelding I have a handful of shares in with Raceshare, Treasure Time, runs at Chester on Friday afternoon. I can’t be trackside on the Roodee for the run (it’s actually my birthday so have a few things arranged) but surely it’s an omen that he runs on such a special day. 

All joking and self indulgent claptrap aside he goes in the 7½f London Essence Handicap at 5.10, the lucky last on the card. He is drawn in stall four of thirteen so I can’t moan about that around the turns of Chester and I honestly think the trip of seven-furlongs 127 yards could prove ideal; the way he came home at Kempton over seven there in September last year suggests it’s his sort of trip. Fourth over six-furlongs at Newcastle on his three-year-old seasonal debut last month, he simply didn’t have the change of gear to live with the out and out sprinters there, that will have blown away the cobwebs and the team at Somerville Lodge have been taking their time to find just the right race to run him in; taken out of an engagement at Yarmouth last month due to the going. Cieren Fallon rides again, which is seen as a positive, and William Haggas reported Treasure Time in good form - he was happy with his work on Tuesday - and even if the showers come the team are happy for him to run with a number of his relatives having handled easy ground. Cieren Fallon rode him last week and also reported he was happy with him. I have said before I think his mark of 77 is workable, all four of his half-siblings are winners, all rated 80+ in their careers with two over 100; Badri a high of 104 and Equality as high as 110. Most of the opposition are fairly exposed types and Treasure Time should have more to offer yet as all his half-siblings improved with racing so you’d expect improvement from the son of Time Test after just three starts. All being well it should be fourth time lucky for Treasure Time and hopefully onwards and upwards into some big money handicaps; with luck he can add some cash to the kitty for next week at Royal Ascot in the process. I am on at 100-30 this morning for what could be a very happy birthday indeed. Shemozzle was the one I feared most but she's a non-runner. Native King makes stable debut for Hugo Palmer and brings fair All-Weather form to the race from his last couple of runs at Newcastle but the tight turns of Chester are a different test to the long straight up in Geordieland. Operate has been consistent in his five starts to date, often races keenly and prominent, and probably needs to drop a pound or two in the weights to get his head in front but a mark of 78 gives him a chance. I am hopeful breaking from stall one he, along with Juantorena and Swift Salian, who have gone forward in the past, can set the race up for Treasure Time to swoop down the short straight. 

Be lucky