More selections to follow
Good evening folks
One proper handicap again & Raatea was a bit unlucky at the start. That’s racing!
Just a brief reminder that as I said this previosly, these Festival bets are kept separate from the main account and I will be personally throwing targeted darts at a few biggies ! All selections are picked in a hard working manner though but big races, especially Stakes races, are very tough, especially the 2 & 3 year old ones at Festivals such as this. I will also throw in a few others at the away meetings out of this pot of points and money from my pots I ALWAYS keep to one side for this meeting and not my main betting banks/main service accounts.
2:40 Chester
DARK PINE – 1 Pt Win @ 10/1 generally drifting
David Loughnane’s six-year-old loves Chester and he has won here off 93 and finished a neck second of 90, both times finishing well when there was cut in the ground. I loves to race right handed, conditions will be very much to his liking and he might just get the strong gallop he craves as well, with Box To Box likely to go hard early from his wide draw in a bid to dominate the pace from Sweet Reward and Belhaven.
That could play into the hands of Dark Pine who has come down 5lb in three runs to a very competitive-looking mark of 86. Laura Pearson gets on well with him and is 2 from 4 in Handicaps at this distance for the yard and a 28% win SR ALL H’caps!
2:25 Doncaster
DUSKY LORD – 1/2 Pt EW @ 60/1 6 places Bet365, 55/1 6 places boost Will Hill, 50/1 7 places Skybet & 50’s 6 places generally (drifting so may get bigger)
Dusky Lord left Roger Varian last autumn, and was bought by the canny Stuart Williams yard and no doubt he has probably had this race in mind as an end-game target for some time. Williams has a cracking record in handicaps at this meeting down the years with a strike-rate in excess of 33%
He was drawn 21 of 21 in this race last year and ran quite well despite having to challenge away from the bulk of the action (first four home drawn 14, 3, 5 and 6), a promising effort on which he delivered in style by winning the Silver Cup at Ayr by three lengths from a mark of 90.
The return of cheekpieces, worn only twice previously, when runner-up at Goodwood and when winning at Ayr where he absolutely took apart a Class 2, 25 runner race by 3 lengths with cut in the ground! They seemed to spark a considerable amount of improvement that day so it’s obviously encouraging to see the same headgear back for the first time since!
This year’s three runs have featured two very low-key runs but the middle one at Sandown showed he’s still got plenty of appetite for the game and he finished only just behind Call Me Ginger that day.
Having slipped back to 92, he’s handicapped to strike again and is entered at Ayr again next week for good measure