Teenager Harry hoping for Lincoln win on Modern News
TOMORROW’S Lincoln Handicap has become a stepping stone for horses rated 100+ who are being primed to compete in Group races before long. The last three winners have come from the Haggas, Appleby and Gosden stables, and their representatives this year are jostling for favouritism around the 4/1 mark. That’s akin to odds of 4/6 that one of the three will win.
The booking of 17-year-old Harry Davies for Charlie Appleby’s runner Modern News demonstrates he is the latest in the conveyor belt of promising new apprentices. His six winners from 32 rides this year is an impressive record for a beginner and he can ride as low as seven stone twelve. The Godolphin fouryear-old is rated 105 and, with only seven races under his belt, could have scope for more improvement. But he may not need to improve with Davies’s seven pound claim reducing his burden. He’s priced at 9/2 at the moment.
It’s to be hoped Davies doesn’t follow the same path as the new star apprentice at this time last year. Benoit de la Sayette, then 18, also rode a 9/2 shot in the Lincoln for a big stable – the Gosdens – and won it. He’d ridden ten winners by that time with a similarly impressive strike rate. However, a few days after his victory at Doncaster a video was posted online appearing to show him in the company of cocaine users. A BHA investigation resulted in a lengthy ban, exacerbated by their concerns about how fully and frankly he answered their questions. He now has his licence back and will be resuming in low-key style at Wolverhampton tomorrow.
At the other end of the spectrum, champion jockey Oisin Murphy’s suspension means he has to sit out the whole of this year as punishment for his own set of misdemeanours. Whatever skills a jockey has in the saddle, he needs other less visible but equally vital qualities to avoid damaging his career – such as the ability to resist temptation.
The first turf race of the new season is the Brocklesby Stakes for two year olds. The market is a fair guide, the winners usually coming in at 8/1 or less. Chipotle, the victor in 2021, turned out to be well above average, winning three other races and earning almost £140,000 in prize money. His canny owners sold him for 210,000 guineas in the autumn.
Since then he has been gelded, presumably on the basis that he was unfashionably bred and his eventual fee-earning prospects as a stallion were mediocre. He should be an interesting contender for some of the big sprints.
Chipotle is unlikely to compare with Donovan, the winner of the Brocklesby in 1888. He won ten more races as a juvenile and next year’s Derby and St Leger, only missing out on the Triple Crown by a hair’s breadth due to his jockey in the 2,000 Guineas easing down prematurely.
Anyone looking for a cheaper horse should take note of Stratford’s 3.28 race, a selling hurdle. Bidding at the auction of the winner will start at £3,200. Claims for £7,000 for any of the other runners are invited. It’s a pity courses don’t programme more sellers, as they can provide great fun for spectators when there are competing bidders.