Well, the last seven days for the BestofBets.com articles have been positive.
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Wednesday’s article contained two fancies for the York Dante meeting, one of them being the Dante winner, THE FOXES, and the other was CLARENDON HOUSE who just finished out of the places at 14/1.
Rewind it all the way back to the last edition of The Top Three released last Friday and after one week, the P&L (full figure at the bottom of this piece) is in profit thanks to ANGEL BLEU’s nail-biting victory at Haydock on Saturday. Hector Crouch deserves a mountain of credit for the ride he gave Ralph Beckett’s four-year-old.
👏 Good to see Angel Bleu, a dual Group One winner as a juvenile, return to winning ways at @haydockraces
He gamely lands the Listed Pertemps Network Spring Trophy Stakes for @RalphBeckett & @HectorCrouch pic.twitter.com/Q8dgEBvb0B
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 13, 2023
With Newbury’s marquee flat day now in the sights of racing fans up and down the country, these are this week’s top three fancies for Lockinge weekend with the points staked on each advised.
LOYAL TOUCH 14/1 & SILVER SWORD 14/1 – 3:00 Newbury – 0.5pts EW on each with William Hill
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The London Gold Cup at Newbury is always a fantastic race and usually provides great form to follow for the season, however, it is a difficult race to work out.
With that in mind, there are two horses that I like and will be backing in the race each way at 14/1 with William Hill.
The first is SILVER SWORD for Dylan Cunha who is coming into this race after a hard-fought victory at Southwell 32 days ago, a race that displayed his stamina over a mile in a good light.
Before that, he had finished two lengths behind Empress Wu at Lingfield over tomorrow’s distance of 1m2f and his fifth behind Military Order reads very well considering what Godolphin’s full brother to Adayar has done since in the Derby Trial at Lingfield.
The brother to Adayar strikes on the Rowley Mile 👀
Military Order (Frankel) opens his account second-time out and brings up a fine four-timer for William Buick and Charlie Appleby at @NewmarketRace @godolphin pic.twitter.com/y6Sj9fVG6p
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) October 19, 2022
I talked about this Charm Spirit three-year-old in Wednesday’s ante-pots analysis article, but I didn’t mention the other fancy for the London Gold Cup, LOYAL TOUCH.
Frankie Dettori is booked to ride this No Nay Never colt on his farewell tour and he could be sat underneath a nice one for Charlie Johnston as his third in a maiden stakes over seven furlongs in July had a big form boost yesterday thanks to The Foxes’ victory in the Dante.
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He steps up to 1m2f for the first time tomorrow, so I decided to take a look at his pedigree to see if he would stay the trip.
Out of a Danehill Dancer mare called Devoted To You who was runner-up to Lillie Langtry in the 2009 Debutante Stakes at Leopardstown, all of his relations are by the super-sire Galileo and three have turned into national hunt horses, so this move to send her to No Nay Never, a much speedier sire, can hopefully see Loyal Touch become more of a middle-distance horse rather than a 1m4f+ type.
Loyal Touch runs out a comfortable winner of the @UnibetRacing Support Safe Gambling Nursery Handicap, pulling out more when challenged to score cosily in the hands of @D_Muscutttt for @Johnston_Racing 👏 pic.twitter.com/X73fSUQuVs
— Kempton Park Racecourse (@kemptonparkrace) November 28, 2022
Interestingly, he is a half-brother to Sovereign, the 2019 Irish Derby winner, and Dawn Rising, a Grade 3 winner over timber and rated 102 on the Flat.
Taking all this in, both look to be interesting plays in the highly-competitive London Gold Cup at 14/1.
MY PROSPERO 11/2 – 3:35 Newbury – 2pts Win with William Hill
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I’m heading to the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes for my final fancy of the weekend and it’s a cliff horse of mine that will be carrying my hopes as MY PROSPERO at 11/2 with William Hill looks a good bet.
The Iffraaj four-year-old colt is well-regarded within the William Haggas yard having won three races last year and placed in two Group 1s at Ascot.
The one race that grabs my attention the most is his third at Royal Ascot in the St James’s Palace Stakes behind the Guineas winner Coroebus as he was early off the bridle over a mile yet continued to stay on and nearly get up on the line – Ascot is a nice, galloping track and Newbury, with its five-furlong home straight, should suit well.
Coroebus wins thrilling St James’s Palace Stakes 🏇 #RoyalAscot2022pic.twitter.com/jFTyL2pAIm
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) June 14, 2022
What is interesting to me is that he is also entered in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh at the end of May over 1m2f, the distance he was tried at on his last two starts, so it seems like connections are happy to come back in trip for the Lockinge to fully apply himself.
The danger from a My Prospero backer would be Mutasaabeq who was very impressive last time out at Newmarket 15 days ago, though I’m happy to trust the solid, confirmed form in the Lockinge provided by My Prospero.
P&L after one week: +2.625
