Newbury Saturday
12.50 Sky Sports Racing Aston Park Stakes (Group 3) 1m 4f
Courage Mon Ami is the pick of these on official ratings, but he is sure to prove vulnerable after missing last year, especially dropping in trip and connections will be happy if he makes the frame in a race likely to set him up for another Gold Cup bid.
Al Aasy has been called all the names under the sun, but he is a horse who gives generously on the bridle, so it’s no surprise he doesn’t always find much off it.
He’s had his limitations revealed in Group 1 company but is a force to be reckoned with at Listed/Group 3 level, winning nine of his 18 starts in such company.
His Newbury record reads 1141213 and he’s won twice from three course and distance runs. His best form is just about good enough to win this and Jim Crowley knows exactly how to get the best out of him these days.
1.25 Highclere Castle Gin
Carnarvon Stakes (Listed) 6f
Aidan O’Brien is always a man the bookies fear, but with 18 winners from 41 runners in the past fortnight, he’s looking even more dangerous than usual, and he has the pick of the field here in Ides Of March who showed his best form as a juvenile at this trip and who found only the top-notch Whistlejacket too strong on his return in the Listed Committed Stakes at Navan recently.
He looked burly in the preliminaries there, drifting from 9/4 to 4/1 in the betting, and shaped as if he would derive plenty of benefit from the run. If that’s true then he’s impossible to oppose here, with the bare form of that second looking solid enough to see him go very close.
2.00 Trade Nation London Gold Cup Handicap 1m 2f
As always, there are multiple potential improvers in the London Gold Cup, not least Circus Of Rome, who shaped better than the bare facts of his latest 6th in a 0-85 handicap at Sandown over this trip.
Richard Hughes’s charge was short of room early in the straight but was staying on well thereafter and finished with running left in a race won by Sing Us A Song. That form has been franked by the third, Gunship, who won a similar contest next time, and fifth-placed Many Men ran well when third at York on Thursday.
Circus Of Rome gave the impression he would be seen to better effect granted an end-to-end gallop, and he ought to get that here, with Ernst Blofeld likely to set a decent pace from his low stall and both Lightening Mann and Asmen Warrior also likely to be part of that pace scenario.
The long straight at Newbury will also be a help to Circus Of Rome, who galloped all the way to the line at Sandown but lacked a telling turn of foot given how the race developed.
2.35 Boylesports Lockinge Stakes (Group 1) 1m
Tamfana looks the percentage call in a fascinating renewal of the Lockinge, and she can strike with fitness on her side following a creditable effort on her return when second to Dancing Gemini in the Bet365 Mile at Sandown.
She had to concede weight to the winner that day, but is now in receipt of the mares’ allowance in this level-weights contest. That should ensure she can turn the tables, although the pick of her form from last season also suggests she has little to fear from Roger Teal’s four-year-old.
Rosallion has the best form on offer having won the Irish 2000 Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes last summer, and he’s reportedly ready to go having missed the second half of the season with a respiratory infection.
That length of layoff would usually be a concern, but Hannon’s team has been in rare form of late, and I fear Rosallion much more than Guineas winner Notable Speech, who won a numerically weak Sussex Stakes but otherwise didn’t really repeat the form he had shown at Newmarket last May, a race he was well primed for.
3.10 Childwickbury Stud Fillies’ Trial Stakes (Listed) 1m 2f
Sand Gazelle was a place behind Qilin Queen in the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket a couple of weeks ago, but she shaped like the second best filly on the day and is taken to progress again to win this listed contest.
A winner of her only start as a juvenile, at Kempton in December, she showed much improved form to finish a good fourth to Falakeyah in the Pretty Polly, weakening and losing two places on the final climb having made a big mid-race move to track the winner.
Sand Gazelle is out of a half-sister to ‘Arc’ heroine Bluestocking, and is likely to stay the trip better with that experience behind her. She has a deficit of a length and a quarter to make up on Qilin Queen, but while the Pretty Polly was just her second race, Qilin Queen was having her fourth start at Newmarket and lacks the selection’s scope for better.
1.05 Read Meg Nicholls’ Blog At BetMGM.co.uk Handicap 7f
Physique was a big eye-catcher on his return and debut for Pam Sly at Doncaster, with even the stewards making a note of the way he was handled in finishing fourth from a poor draw.
He didn’t immediately back that up, but ran much better when three-quarter-length second of six to Miss Information in a course and distance handicap last time. Successful on his only previous visit to Newmarket, Physique clearly handles the contours well and remains fairly treated on the form he showed when winning at Galway for Micky Fenton last season. Fenton has re-crossed the Irish Sea to become assistant to Sly and the partnership seems likely to bear fruit sooner or later, with Fenton likely to take over at some point from Sly, who is very much in the veteran category having held a permit or licence since the 1970’s.
1.40 JCB Handicap 7f
Fondo Blanco really ought to have won when a short-head second to Sixtygeesbaby in a Doncaster novice on his return, but he remains open to progress after just three starts and is taken to go one better on his handicap debut.
Roger Varian is operating at a 22% strike-rate this season and saddled a double at Kempton on Thursday, while Fondo Blanck starts his life in handicaps off a workable rating of 85. He was up in another stride at Doncaster last time and given six of the first seven home in that contest were previous winners, the form looks solid for the grade.
2.15 Bet £10 Get £40 With
BetMGM Handicap 1m
Good Morning Alex won six handicaps in a six-month spell from late 2023 until last summer, and while it looked like he was in the grip of the handicapper more recently, he belied that notion to score again at Ripon last time from a mark of 79.
The handicapper has put him up just 2lb for dead-heating with course specialist Garden Oasis, so with Luke Catton taking 5lb off now, he looks well enough treated to eke out another win before the assessor can stop him.
Recommended
Al Aasy 12.50 Newbury – 1pt win 4/1 (general)
Circus Of Rome 2.00 Newbury – 1pt e/w 14/1 (Hills; 3 places, or 12/1 Paddy Power; 4 pl)
Tamfana 2.35 Newbury – 1pt win 5/1 (Bet365, Paddy Power – 9/2 general)
Sand Gazelle 3.10 Newbury – 1pt wn 8/1 (Paddy Power, 15/2 general)
Physique 1.05 Newmarket – 1pt win 4/1 (general)
Good Morning Alex 2.15 Newmarket – 1pt win 7/1 (general)