DOUBLE HANDFUL

John Shaw column:

THE Weatherby’s Super Sprint is the type of race you can analyse for hours on end and still be none the wiser as to who will be the winner. The weights are determined by the sales price of each horse, so the cheaper the purchase price, the less weight they carry.

This means if you landed a bargain when you bought a horse you’ve got a decent chance of victory. Not that the words ‘bargain’ and ‘buying horses’ are usually found in the same sentence.

As a rule, I don’t like to take a short price about a horse in any race with over 20 runners.

That said, there have been some shortpriced winners of this race in recent years.

Three years ago Tiggy Wiggy beat 23 opponents to win at a piffling 5-2.

Last year Mrs Danvers was a winning joint favourite at 9-2 as were Peniaphobia (5-1) and Body and Soul (9-2) in 2013 and 2012.

But there have been big-priced winners as well, with three horses at 20-1 or longer winning in the last seven years — not including 100-1 shot Lady Livus in 2005. I’m not keen on likely favourite Maggies Angel partly because of her short price and partly because I think she’s probably better over six furlongs. Fillies do have a decent record in this race, though, winning four of the last 10 renewals. I’m tempted to back the unbeaten Time Trail, who looks very well priced but will have to step up to beat today’s competition. Preference is given to MOTHER OF DRAGONS, who cost a bargain basement £1,800 and was narrowly denied on her first two starts at Windsor and Goodwood before finishing mid-division in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Trainer Joe Tuite, who saddled Field Of Vision to take third place in 2015, is delighted be racing off 8st with Jimmy Quinn on board.