Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Crowley’s Thunder can reign
THIS Sandown meeting used to attract more celebrities than the Mayweather-mcgregor fight.
It hosted the Variety Club Day from 1959 until 2012, but star-spotters will be outnumbered by serious racegoers today and they’ll be trying to find the winner of the Betbright Recall Handicap (3.35).
This race has some major trends to follow, namely:
Winners have come from either very low stalls (one or two) or eight and higher.
Horses who ran at Haydock, Goodwood, York or Newmarket last time have a great record.
Have raced four or more times this season.
That leaves us with a shortlist of four — Master Carpenter, Noble Gift, Pacify and Thundering Blue.
Master Carpenter
needs looser ground and will struggle to get competitive on this sticky surface.
Noble Gift isn’t as good as he was and his handicap mark is too high.
And Pacify is difficult to trust, having flopped so often.
That leaves the hat-trick-seeking
THUNDERING BLUE.
Following nine defeats, the David Menuisier-trained gelding got off the mark at Epsom in July and followed up at Newmarket last month.
He’s still on a feasible rating and the booking of champion Jim Crowley catches the eye.
Have 2pts win at 8-1 generally.