The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Goring worth supporting at Salisbury
Racing: Son of Areion just 3lb higher than when he looked sharp at Windsor
GORING hardly looks a handicap snip but did enough at Ayr last time to warrant support in the Alford Investments Ltd Handicap at Salisbury.
Eve Johnson Houghton’s inmate won a better race than this at Windsor on August 1, but rather struggled in two subsequent starts that month.
But the argument that he was now hamstrung by the assessor had to be tempered as he flashed home with purpose in a class two sprint handicap at the Western meeting.
Goring caught the eye inside the final furlong, eventually finishing fifth to Classic Seniority and only 2¼ lengths away from the winner.
That performance failed to impress the handicapper, though, who has opted to relieve him of a pound.
The son of Areion is now just 3lb higher than when he looked so sharp at Windsor, while the reappointment of Tom Marquand is no bad thing, either.
Goring has won before with ease in the ground so the recent rainfall at the track would not have been greeted with too much dismay by his capable trainer.
WINDSHEAR has had a bit of a nightmare this year, but proverbial green shoots of recovery were spotted on his last spin at Doncaster.
Once rated 112 and fourth in the 2014 St Leger, those halcyon days now seem an awfully long time ago as he has not won since March last year.
The five-year-old gelding, trained by Richard Hannon, did a great deal better at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting when he finished third in a solid handicap over an extended 10 furlongs.
Hannon’s representative runs in the Weatherbys Hamilton Handicap off a mark of 93, so his chance is obvious if that Doncaster run has instilled into him a greater sense of purpose.
BEDROCK has finished second on his last two starts – not because of anything untoward, it would seem – and would be an utterly deserving winner of the KFE School Of Frying Excellence Handicap at Nottingham. SELECTIONS: NOTTINGHAM: 2.00 Red Alert, 2.30 Dowayla, 3.00 Mount Moriah, 3.30 Bedrock, 4.05 Flyboy, 4.40 Ambitious Icarus, 5.10 Billyoakes.
SALISBURY: 1.50 Make Time, 2.20 Mr Tyrrell, 2.50 Smokey Lane, 3.20 GORING (NAP), 3.55 Windshear, 4.30 Miss Tiger Lily, 5.00 Wynford.
DOUBLE: Goring and Windshear.