The weekend’s racing took a tragic turn yesterday when Grade 1 winning hurdler Mega Fortune took a fall when racing at Limerick and was fatally injured. Gordon Elliott’s 4-year-old was placed in last year’s Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham and it’s a loss that’ll be keenly felt in the trainer's County Meath yard.
This week looks set to be a sterling one for racing, with the Dubai Future Champions Festival being the highlight. The showpiece race of the two-day affair at Newmarket will be the Group One Dewhurst Stakes. As we gear towards that high-grade action on the level, we’ve got five cards today, with flat racing at Pontefract, Salisbury, Windsor and Musselburgh as well as an all-weather card tonight at Kempton.
Race of the day
17:10 Musselburgh - EBF Musselburgh Fillies' Sprint Stakes (Listed)
This Listed race sees some rapid fillies going toe-to-toe over the minimum trip. It’s a race that’s been brought out of the ashes of Ayr’s abandoned Gold Cup meeting and rearranged for this evening at Musselburgh. The rapid Thesme might well be able to take these along with her speed on a track that’s built for it. She’s been hot-and-cold for some time now but she certainly has the zip to make a bold show from the front if she’s on a going day. She won’t, however, appreciate any give in the ground.
One of those opposing is the highly progressive Mabs Cross, who won the last of three consecutive wins when she last raced in June. She steps up to Listed company here but she’s lightly raced compared to a few of these and might have enough improvement left in her to feature. Our racecard tipping function shows Clem Fandango as the most tipped runner in this race and it’s easy to understand why. She’s been running with credit at a high grade in France and might have picked a good chance to come home and pick up some black type.
Ryan runner our most napped of the day
16:10 Musselburgh - Bet At racinguk.com Handicap
Kevin Ryan has a reasonable record of late, with a record of 5 winners in 28 runners for a strike-rate of 18%, and he saddles a runner in Scotland who features prominently on our naps table today. Our top tipster is among those who’ve flagged this one up as a fancy and she runs this afternoon at Musselburgh.
Royal Icon is without a win in eleven races to date and has been beaten by a distance in almost all of those. The combination of a step up to 1m 3f and a first outing on heavy ground seemed to bring new life into this filly last time out and she’s running over 1m 4f at Musselburgh today and should find a bit of cut in the ground, too. Unexposed over this trip and coming into form, she looks sure to run a big race.
You can find other tipped horses over on our naps page.
In-form Appleby saddles maiden winner
16:15 Windsor - Konig Ludwig Handicap
Charlie Appleby has been in fine form of late, with 8 winners from 16 runners over the last two weeks for a strike rate of 50%.
It might well prove worth siding with one from his stable at Windsor this afternoon. Zamfir won a Leicester maiden in nice fashion on his first outing in May but was disappointing on his next start at the Derby Trial at Lingfield. He ran no sort of race that day, and you’d have to think he’s got more in his locker than he showed on that occasion. He returns to turf for this, his third appearance, after a break with newly-fitted blinkers. If the Zamfir of his debut shows up at Windsor he should give well-fancied jolly Lawless Secret something to think about.
You can find other statistical tips and trends on our pointers page.
