PAY HOMAGE TO YORK CHANCE FOR HAGGAS
HOMAGE flickered encouragingly in the Cambridgeshire last month and appears a stand- out contender for victory on a good card at York tomorrow.
William Haggas’s four- yearold is perhaps not the most reliable of fellows, but he should be good enough to take the Stan James- sponsored handicap over eight and a half furlongs.
The gelded son of Acclamation has always threatened to win a big prize, but he has hitherto never quite been able to carry it through.
Despite having won on his seasonal bow at Haydock last year, for instance, Homage largely struggled in 2013 and was transferred from out of Jeremy Noseda’s stables and into the care of Haggas.
The switch brought with it an immediate response as he galloped two and a half lengths in a fair race over this trip at Windsor in April.
Homage was then tapped for toe a little over a mile at Kempton, but he served notice in the Cambridgeshire that the handicapper does not yet quite have his measure.
Haggas must have been heartened by his 10th- placed finish at Newmarket, where he was beaten six lengths by Bronze Angel after having endured a fair bit of jousting for position inside the final furlong.
With Ryan Moore at the helm for this engagement, the signs looks promising, especially as North Yorkshire is forecast to miss much of the rain which has afflicted large chunks of the nation this week.
David Barron’s six- year- old Long Awaited is not a horse in which to place implicit trust, but he has enough about him to end a long losing run in the Bell Trailers Stakes.
Ardlui’s will to win could be enough to see him over the line in the Parsonage Hotel And Cloisters Spa Stakes.
Tim Easterby’s staying handicapper was last sighted at Newcastle in June when he turned in a gutsy performance in the Northumberland Plate.
With the drop in trip to a mile and a half unlikely to be an issue, allied to his flexibility for whatever the ground is like, he is in a position to take advantage of a 4lb lower mark than when he last hit the target in April 2013.