Saturday's Racing - Short And Sweet For A Change

ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN

I am going for a new personal best this week for “shortest ever article” having been stuck on wi-fi less planes for what feels like for ever, shortening the little spare time I seem to get these days.

What I did notice this week was the call to arms by pretty much everyone in the racing industry to stop the nonsense that this government are attempting next. In simple terms (so I can understand) there are two taxes levied on bookmakers, a lower rate for racing and a higher rate for casinos, and to make life easier (not to make more money, heaven forbid), they want to harmonise them upwards (who would have guessed).

On to the racing….

Saturday

Newmarket 3.25pm

If I have it all wrong then so be it, but I get the feeling the boys in blue of Godolphin could be in for a very good afternoon. First up we have the Bet365 Mile handicap due off at 3.25pm when Bedouin Prince looks to carry top weight to victory with William Buick in the saddle. Second on his only start last year he has made up for lost time this season with wins at Doncaster and at Newmarket on the Rowley Mile, the last one with a close to five length victory that marked him down as a horse with plenty of talent who may even go on to be far better than a handicapper in the long term.

Newmarket 4.00pm

I may be wrong but at this moment in time I really cannot see that Aidan O’Brien’s Italy has done any more than Charlie Appleby’s Saba Desert, yet the first named is odds on for the Superlative Stakes and Willam Buick’s mount is 4/1, and possibly the better value. Both won by three-quarters of a length on debut, both were sent off odds-on, and both raced over the seven furlongs they face this afternoon, and although the Irish win was in a better time admittedly, both have the potential to build on the little we have seen so far.

Newmarket 4.35pm

Notable Speech intrigues dropping back to six furlongs for the first time, and if the 2024 200 Guineas and Sussex Stakes winner takes to the trip then he could go close, but 3/1 is shocking value and I prefer to look elsewhere for an each way alternative. Believing is my tentative pick stepping back up in trip after disappointing over five furlongs in the Group One King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot. Already a winner at this level in Meydan (Dubai), it has to be noted that Ascot was her first race in two months, and I am hoping she takes a step forward this afternoon, with a top three finish the very least if she gets the rub of the green, and at a decent price as well.   

Sean’s Suggestion:

Bedouin Prince 3.25pm Newmarket