Thoughts on racing both past and future.

ALL THOUGHTS ARE MY OWN

apart from the joint Podcast with Ron Robinson here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGcIE4cwkA&feature=youtu.be

It’s invariably a struggle to find positive news to write about however hard I try, but I do feel Nottingham racecourse deserve at least a mention for trying their hardest to get more people to the track this week, though it won’t be too hard to outnumber the runners. A very fair track where those of us of a certain age will remember Henry Cecil blooding some of his better two-year-olds back in the day, they have acknowledged punters like a sport of value and come up with an offer of £21 entry which is pretty decent these days even if it is mid-week.  Add in an included pie, race card and a pint and I honestly feel it is the best value out there and I can but hope it was successful – taking “average” prices (yes, I googled it) a pie if £5.50, a racecard (£3) and a pint (£5.50)  and that means you are getting in for about £7 and if that’s isn’t a bargain in the year 2026 I don’t know what it. Sadly, the horses don’t eat pies, drink beer, of read racecards and only a miserable 32 turned out for a six race card where the prize money was no better or worse than your average mid-week meeting, but with good to firm going and the cost of travelling a horse lately, it’s hard to see what more they could do?

Talking of the ground, and if this drought continues, we may well see even more wild and whacky results that even Mystic Meg could not predict. Grass gallops in Lambourn have been closed for some time now, and I suspect Newmarket are the same and there is only so much you can do on a very busy all-weather gallops with queues of horses waiting for their turn and no peace for the wicked. For us punters there could be an angle if we can sort out which trainers have access to all-weather gallops, and crucially which don’t (I am talking about those away from the main racing centres), but of you think we are seeing small fields now, just wait for the jumps season later in the year – if this weather carries on as it is none of them will be fit and most of them will be sat at home waiting for the heavy rain needed before they even dare to go out schooling.

Next up we have a tale of two jockeys, young Billy Loughnane at the start of his career in the saddle, and Jim Crowley calling it a day after a bad injury saw his career cut short. Billy is the man of the moment with a classic win on Bow Echo at the tender age of just 20, narrowly out of his teens. His abilities from the saddle have clearly been noticed by some very powerful people with Charlie Appleby giving him plenty of rides in the Godolphin blue, so are we looking at the long-term successor to William Buick – vey probably. Last season the UAE powerhouse had two retained jockeys in Buick and James Doyle who is still used despite moving across to Wathnan Racing, but I can imagine conversations are already taking place to add Billy as the number two. Whether he would take it or not is a different question, he seems to love riding horses more than money and is loyal to the likes of George Boughey and others, though the chance to ride some of the best bred thoroughbreds on the planet may be too tempting to resist if and when the phone call comes.

Jim Crowley is moving on to take up training and it will be interesting to see how successful he becomes, and who patronises his yard. A youngster in my eyes at the age of 48, he rode so many top-class winners in the Sheikh Hamdan colours, but after spending time talking to as many handlers as he can find, he plans to start training from part of the Coombelands Estate near Pulborough in Sussex alongside sister -in-law Amanda Perrett, daughter of Guy Harwood who trained Dancing Brave. Whether he can ever find the next Baeed is open to question, but he is not a man who does anything by halves and of Shadwell decide to patronise him with some of their homebreds as I expect, it won’t be too long before we see him back in the winners’ enclosure from the other side of the fence.

Finally, the sad news (well, probably not for him) that Bow Echo has suffered a setback and will now be retired to stud.  Apparently, nothing major, and that tells me he was going off to his new career at the end of this season regardless and was never going to stay in training as a four-year-old, so perhaps all the comparisons to Frankel can now disappear? He does retire unbeaten as a 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes and Sussex Stakes winner and will apparently stand for a fee around the £80,000 mark (nice work if you can get it), he is expected to stand at Darley Hall Stud and it will be interesting to see how his progeny get on - but I will say here and now that I don’t expect them to have the same success as a Dubawi or a Frankel, whatever mares are sent his way.

On to the racing…

Saturday Racing

Newbury 1.25pm

A quiet weekend but we have still got four decent races to have a closer look at. We start with the Group Three Geoffrey Freer Stakes from Newbury, to be raced over close to a mile and three quarters, and won last year by Furthur for Andrew Balding, a 13/2 chance. Interestingly, three-year-olds have dominated this in recent years with their age allowance helping to see six of the last nine winners represent that particular age group, but can they add to that tally in 2026? If they do then it will be Rebel Rocker, second at odds of 33/1 on his return for the season and then sixth in the Derby when sent off at 66/1, beaten 10 lengths at the line. He steps up in trip for his first race since June he has 5lb to find at these weights with likely favourite Dubai Honour, but at six times the price and with the potential for plenty of improvement after just the three career start, I will be on him each way with a payout for first or second.

Newbury 3.10pm

Our only other blacktype race from the United Kingdom Saturday is the Group Two Hungerford Stakes, won by trainer William Haggas in three of the last five years including 2024 and 2025. He is back for more with Extremely Zain but with only one three-year-old winner in the last decade he has his work cut out to be successful here. The son of Hello Youmzain lost his unbeaten record when fourth at Ascot but that was a handicap and he needs a big step forward to get competitive here. Symbol Of Honour bounced back to form with a comfortable victory at Newbury but he is yet to win over a seventh furlong, while Coppull was a good fourth in the July Cup at Newmarket but is another trying this trip for the first time. For reasons unknown I have yet to really take to Never So Brave, but he clearly has the strongest credentials having won three times over this trip and twice over further. He already has also won the Group One City Of York Stakes suggesting a “mere” Group Two is not beyond him, while his last start saw a respectable enough six length six in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood behind Bow Echo where unsurprisingly the mile at that grade proved too far for him. Back at his favoured trip he is difficult to oppose, I just wish he had a better strike rate than he does.

Ripon 3.25pm

The Great St Wilfrid Handicap over six furlongs is always exciting to watch, though with just the one winning jolly since 2021 and a 16/1 winner last year bets should be reduced in size accordingly – this isn’t easy to solve! Looking through the stats (or facts if you want to look at it that way and via a combination of days since a run, finishing positions, ages, and official ratings I have used the last 15 years to get this down to a shortlist of five – Dark Cloud Rising, Khafiz, Lord Roxby, I’m Next, and Kodiac Thriller. Looking at the connections of winners in that timespan and I note that David O’Meara has a record of three winners and six places from just the 23 runners which is mightily impressive for a race this competitive while Danny Tudhope rode all three – and another two places from only nine rides – even more impressive. As for the horse, he was a beaten favourite over course and distance at the start of the month, a length and three-quarters adrift of Lord Roxby who is shorter in the betting as I write but is now 8lb worse off which surely ought to be enough to turn that around. He is only four years old which in my view is young for a sprinter, he won over course and distance in June and has what could be a favourable draw in the 15 stall (high has won seven of the last 10 runnings for up to date information), and at 15/2 each way looks a pretty sensible call.

Saratoga 10.06pm

I have covered this race for two reasons – one is the fact that this Grade One is named in in honour of the late great Christophe Clement, father of Miguel Clement (who trains Tawny Port here and is the husband of my friend Acacia Clement), and the other is the fact that we have not one but three British raiders in the hunt for the £333,335 first prize. Ancient Egypt has travelled over for Charlie Johnston after finishing a head second in the Grand Prix de Paris to the highly regarded Maltese Cross at Longchamp, but good as he obviously is, we cannot be certain he has acclimatised to his new surroundings. Survie won over course and distance last time out in the Grade Two Glens Falls Stakes and has to be taken very seriously with proven course form, but so does Ed Walker’s Fort George, beaten a nose over a furlong shorter in the Grade Two Bowling Green Stakes here on his first start since a six length ninth to Ombudsman in the Dubai Turf at Meydan on Dubai World Cup night.  Add in Tawny Port’s win in the Belmont Gold Cup over two miles when last seen and the hat-trick seeking Program Trading and for a small field we have a proper conundrum. Ancient Egypt and Survie are very closely matched on official ratings, but I feel the George Boughey mare will win that battle thanks to her course and distance form, though I do note Flavien Prat who rode her to victory last time switches to Program Trading. Now that could be for “political” reasons with the prosect of future rides for both trainer Chad Brown (who he regularly rides for) and owner Klaravich Stables – or it might be that he thinks the Lope De Vega rig is the better horse – we will find out Saturday evening!  

Sean’s Suggestion:

Dark Cloud Rising Each Way 3.25pm Ripon