It’s another excellent day’s racing at York today.
The sales race at 1:35 is always an interesting heat. Brian (Meehan) has won this race in three of the last four years – he’s had a total of seven runners in the last two years – but he has no runners today. The favourite has won in three of the last four years, and today we have a firm favourite. Six years ago the race was won by Acclamation. Acclamation was hardly a superstar, winning only one group 2 in his career, but he’s quickly turning out to be a pretty special stallion and he is the sire of three of the fancied runners today including the favourite, Dark Angel. Perhaps Dark Angel’s form in the July Stakes (behind Winker) hasn’t worked out that well yet (including Swiss Franc beaten yesterday) but I think in time it will come out fine – Barry Hills’ yard is in better form now than it was early in the season and the horse has a right to progress a little for that. I’ll side with him.
I can’t divine a clear case for a bet in the second or third races so I’ll leave them out. The Nunthorpe is an excellent looking heat and I’ve been thinking it through all morning – I think the ground is everything here and I’m coming round to the view that Magnus is the one to be on. I’ll be chewing on it a while longer, but I may be tempted into a fair sized bet.
The 5th race is interesting but too tough and I have to pass. In the 5:00 I may go with Mussoorie, who is a decent price and could be anything now. In the last I’ll give a squeak to Celestial Halo at a big price.