Hello and welcome to my weekly blog on all things horse racing!

York Day 2 Recap

Well, not a day I’d like to remember tipping wise! But a great day of racing nonetheless. In the Middleton, See The Fire retained her group 2 crown with an impressive performance. Connections will be hoping she can springboard from this to her first group 1 victory this season, and I’d be surprised if she fails to rise to that challenge retained to her own sex. My selection, Fallen Angel should come on for that run and should be seen to effect next time at this trip, if not dropping back to a mile. Judmonte should be pleased with their runner Red Letter, who finished runner up and looks exciting going forward. But an even bigger smile in the green and pink was produced a mear 35 minutes later, with the still unbeaten Dante winner Item. This colt quickened clear to win by 2 and 3/4 lengths marking himself as a clearcut Derby contender, providing Andrew Balding with a group 2 double on the day. Action proved a different proposition today to his Sandown performance – being ridden in a completely oppositional fashion seemed to help him, finding his rhythm from the front under Wayne Lordan. Now it’s onto the next day, luckily for us this game never stops giving.

York Day 3 – Yorkshire Cup and Listed Lore

Sky Bet Fillies’ Stakes (Listed) – 14:20

It would be no surprise to see more than half of this field step in or back into group company this season following a run here. A horse I’ve backed every time she has run in So Regal lines up, she has shown plenty on her first 3 starts winning her last.2 in impressive fashion and should continue to progress. The Gosdens couldn’t be in better form and neither of their runners can be passed over lightly. A 900,000 guineas full sister to top class Ombudsman trained by Ed Walker Synchronicity pops up here, putting in a performance at Newbury last time that almost guarantees improvement stepping up in trip with the way she drew clear in the latter stages. Despite these 2 fascinatingly unexposed types, my eye is drawn to the Andrew Balding runner Pacific Mission – who declared herself as very promising last season stateside finishing runner up in a competitive group 1. This is compounded by the performance of his 2 runners today in the group races and she should be on everyones minds on her reappearance run – especially at the current prices. In short, this race is full of unexposed fillies that should prove much better than this in time. I’m hoping that Judmonte has another day to remember tomorrow.

Yorkshire Cup 1m 6f Grp2 – 16:05

This race is filled with some consistently good stayers such as Al Nayyir and Epic Poet. But I’m hoping the market has got this one spot on and that Amiloc is good enough to win his reappearance run and win it well. He brings some of the best form into this race being 2nd in the Irish St Leger and 4th at the Breeders cup. He can be quirky on his day but clearly has bags of ability and I’m hoping the ground should see him in an even better light. A similar type in Rahiebb should also be bang there in this contest if he proves anything like his St Leger second place. He is versatile, tough and should easily see 2 miles in time. A very short but hopefully by tomorrow afternoon a very sweet preview of this race – best of luck if you’re having a pop yourself.

I’ve returned to my favourite backing ways – or at least took one step back in that direction. Time will tell whether it pays off!

Written by Sebastien Croxall