Best bets for the horse racing Saturday 20th July 2024

Following Symbol Of Honour being a non-runner at Newbury on Friday and Ombudsman being unbackable at the price (won at 1-5 Thursday) I haven’t had a bet all week as they were my only two fancies. It is a strange weekend here in the UK following on from a plethora of top-class action last Saturday as it is fairly standard stuff all weekend with the highlight being the Group Three Hackwood Stakes at Newbury. The Curragh is the main meeting across the Irish Sea in Ireland where they have the Group One Juddmonte Irish Oaks as the centrepiece of a two-day meeting that has six Group races across Saturday and Sunday. I fancy a couple in Ireland in the afternoon and have two bets for Saturday evening here in good old Blighty.

Best bets for the horse racing at the Curragh

The first race of interest to me on Saturday is the Group One 1m4f Juddmonte Irish Oaks due off at 3.40 and it has a fairly open look to what might not be the best renewal of the race. G.2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Port Fairy heads the market but that was a bit of a messy race, You Got To Me going off like a scalded cat, and I am not sure how much heed you can pay to the form of that. She was unlucky to lose out in the final strides in the 1m4f Listed Cheshire Oaks before that and clearly has a chance. Stablemate Content has run okay in G.1’s several times over shorter and the filly is interesting stepping-up to this trip. She was staying on in the G.1 1m2f Pretty Polly Stakes last time when third behind Bluestocking and Emily Upjohn, little short of room at a key point, and could find some improvement for the longer distance here. By Galileo out of classy sprinter Meccas Angel the Dam’s side of the pedigree is all about speed but maybe she is very much her fathers daughter? She has pulled too hard early more than once over a mile but settled better here in the Pretty Polly last time and Ryan Moore is onboard suggesting she is the stable pick. As soon as jockey bookings were confirmed she started to shorten, has drifted back out a little again now, and I am on at 7-2 this morning. Ryan Moore said in his Betfair column this week “Content stayed on very strongly for me when third to Bluestocking and Emily Upjohn in the Pretty Polly over 1m2f here last month - that may well be the strongest piece of form on show here - and that gives you encouragement that this Galileo filly could well stay further and make her presence felt here. We know Port Fairy is a guaranteed stayer, having won the Ribblesdale last time. Form-wise, there is very little between the pair, so I'd have gladly sat on either. Both have winning form on soft, if the forecast rain arrives, though it is currently on the quick side.” The Willie Mullins trained unexposed, impressive Leopardstown maiden winner Lope De Lilas is a possible danger to the Ballydoyle pair

Tower Of London has won me a few quid this season already and goes at 4.15 in the Group Two 1m6f Comer Group International Curragh Cup. Having looked a stayer of great potential for the season winning the 1m7f G.3 Longines Red Sea Turf Handicap at Riyadh and the 2m G.2 Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan at the start of the year, I tipped him both times, his run in the G.2 Yorkshire Cup Stakes, I was on again, was disappointing when the expected late burst to win never came (vet said colt lost his right-fore shoe). Ryan Moore said in his Betfair column this week “We had five possibles for this, including four 3yos, and we run three. But this looks a good spot for Tower Of London to get back on track after a disappointing run in the Yorkshire Cup. Whatever the reason for that below-par effort, he has a very strong form chance here on his earlier Meydan win, a race in which he looked a Group 1 horse in waiting. Vauban is the obvious danger.” I can forgive one bad run and I am on again at 6-4. Grosvenor Square, a member of the Dirty Dozen runs, but his two efforts thus far this season haven't been great and he is the yards third-string quite obviously here. I wouldn't put you off backing him each-way but he hasn't really shown the form expected so far in 2024

Best bet for the horse racing at Newmarket

Few people ride the July course at Newmarket better than William Buick, as we saw again last weekend, and he will be getting the leg-up from boss Charlie Appleby to ride Shining Jewel in the 1m4f Listed Ric And Mary Hambro Aphrodite Fillies' Stakes at 6.35. She arrives with three 5’s next to her name after runs in a couple of G.2’s out at Meydan earlier this year and her latest effort in the 1m2f G.3 Jenningsbet In Delves Hoppings Fillies' Stakes at Newcastle last month. You could argue she was on pacemaker duties for more fancied stablemates in all three runs, she raced very prominently, and this drop into calmer waters with the yards number one on her back could see her back to winning ways. There is plenty of stamina on the Dam’s side, half-sister to Group winner Warren Point and related to the likes of multiple Group winner Dartmouth, so the step-up in trip should suit. I have the 9-1 this morning. 

Best bet for the horse racing at Doncaster

The 1m4f Free Digital Racecard At raceday-ready.com Handicap at 8.15 is the sort of race I often run an eye over and move on but I think there is one in here that may be ‘well-in’ as they say. Ehtiram appears to have got the hang of things this season, had a couple of starts on the All-Weather as a two-year-old in which she didn’t show much, but her two outings as a three-year-old have been much more like it. She just failed to get her head in front over 1.1f at Lingfield on the turf in May before winning a 1m2f Maiden Fillies' Stakes at Chelmsford City last time out. An opening handicap mark of 77 looks very workable now she knows what her job is. By multiple G.1 winner Ribchester out of unraced mare Al Raahba (Frankel) on breeding she should be competing at a much higher level and I would expect Shadwell would like her to gain some black-type at some point in her racing career related closely to the likes of Baaeed and Hukum. Billy ‘the kid’ Loughnane rides and with the yard of Owen Burrows amongst the winners recently there is a lot to like about this one. I have some of the 5-4.

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