Newmarket 17:20 - EBF Novice Stakes Class 4 - 1m2f - Occupy 9/4 - 1pt Win
It’s day 3 of the Craven meeting at Newmarket and spectators will once again be basking in the sunshine as the UK is set for sizzling temperatures as high 27 degrees. Away from Newmarket there are jumps fixtures from Cheltenham and over in Ireland from Fairyhouse, whilst there are flat meetings from Ripon and Newcastle on the All-Weather.
My main fancy for this afternoon comes in the 17:20 at Newmarket where I’m hoping Ralph Beckett’s three-year-old colt OCCUPY (9/4) can make it two wins from two starts for the Hampshire based trainer. On his only start to date back in November at Kempton Occupy was sent off as a 25/1 no hoper. However he took a keen hold and raced clear with the leaders before going on to quicken in the final furlong to convincingly beat his rivals by 2 lengths. Incidentally Blame Culture the horse who finished second in that race also had course experience giving a further boost to the performance of Occupy.
The ground has been drying rapidly at Newmarket but with no horses in this raced having competed on turf previously it will be interesting to see who takes to the ground. I’m willing to take a bit of chance on this son of Declaration Of War due to the decisiveness of his winning debut and he’s currently the market favourite at around the price of 9/4. Ralph Beckett sent out a few first-time-out winners last year and with Richard Kingscote in doing the steering I’m hoping for more of the same today. Kingscote’s rides this calendar year have generated a profit of £27.58 to £1 level stakes and with 5 winners in the last two weeks he looks the man for the job at Newmarket.
