COPPER HAS A CAST-IRON OPPORTUNITY
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THE ground for the Racing League at Doncaster is expected to be quick by tonight.
My pick in the imaginatively titled William Hill Extra Place Races Racing League Race 1, COPPER AND FIVE (5.40 Doncaster), needs it good or better to show his best form, and I expect him to go close under ideal conditions.
Bar a below-par effort at Ripon where he clearly didn’t stay a mile and a quarter, Copper And Five has been running consistently well under similar conditions to tonight’s, and two runs over Doncaster’s straight mile have seen him win a length and finish a close third.
He should get a nice tow into the race from his middle draw and
I’ll be disappointed if he can’t give us an each-way return, at the very least.
Matchless is a fair starting point in the William Hill Lengthen Your Odds Racing League Race 7, as he won twice over C&D in the spring and ran a better race than his third at Ripon would suggest last time, helping set too fast a pace.
While Spirit Catcher
the other to help push that pace along dropped away, Matchless kept plugging away and was beaten just over three lengths.
The worry is that
Jean Baptiste likes to go from the front too, and for all Matchless will keep trying, there must be a strong chance he will set this up for a hold-up horse.
Pledge Of Honour is the obvious beneficiary if they go too quick. He’d have been an unlucky loser at Sandown but the gaps came in time for him and once out and in the clear, he fairly rattled home to beat
Andaleep, who held up the form with a good second under top weight at Epsom last week.
He’s on the shortlist, but I think putting ANNANDALE (8.40 Doncaster - Nap) as the rank outsider is a mistake.
Jim Goldie is happy to run his horses over a ranger of trips, and the way staying contests are run at many tracks, it’s often tactical speed which wins the day, with the perfect example being Nicholas T slamming Trueshan in the Northumberland Plate last year.
That race turned into a sprint, with Trueshan struggling to muster the pace to challenge, while Nicholas T dotted up despite the fact that most of his wins have come between a mile and a mile and a quarter.
Trainer
Jim’s the only trainer who would run the same horse in the Cambridgeshire and Cesarewitch these days, which he did with Nanton, but sometimes the ploy doesn’t work, and Annandale is a case in point.
Annandale doesn’t even stay a mile and a half, let alone further, so the fact he was beaten out of sight in the Northumberland Vase when stamina was at a premium is forgiven.
He won over 1m5f at Ayr last September, swamping his rivals for speed in a falsely run race (front runner set a solid pace), but his record since at 1m4f or further reads eight unplaced efforts from as many starts.
He’s not been disgraced on occasion, but he has looked a weak finisher as a rule.
I reckon he’ll relish the return to a more suitable trip, especially with the likely strong pace sure to suit his hold-up style.