Friday, July 20, 2012

Market Rasen's Summer Plate meeting

I'm short on time so some very quick notes...

The weekend feature, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Ascot 4.35), is intriguing. Last year's winner, Nathaniel, took the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown a fortnight ago with a gutsy display on his seasonal debut; there must be some concern he won't have fully recovered from those exertions. In a race where the market has proved a decent guide in the past, I prefer Sea Moon to St Nicholas Abbey following his victory in a competitive renewal of the Harwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot but Sir Michael Stoute is not overly bullish about his colt's chance in a piece in today's Times so I'm not going to play. The three-year-old Japanese runner Deep Brillante (20/1 Bet Victor) is the each-way suggestion for those interested; at the time of writing bet365, 888Sport and Blue Square are the layers offering a quarter the odds a place.

Never mind the Flat, there's a decent jumps card at Market Rasen, with the Summer Plate (3.25) the highlight. You'd have reservations about the jumping with a few of those entered including Benbane Head, Tiger O'Toole, Eastlake and likely favourite Spock. Last year's winner Qulinton is a quirky individual who has been out of form for a while but last time hinted he could be on the way back and tries a visor here; Lawney Hill's I Have Dreamed has been running in hunter chases for the best part of 18 months. Peter Bowen regularly targets this prize, having won four of the last nine renewals; often he saddles several but this year he's single-handed with Al Co. Champion trainer Paul Nicholls has declared two - I much prefer That'll Do (Harry Derham claiming seven) to Spock.  Al Co is my idea of the winner while That'll Do is suggested as an each-way alternative.

Finally, a couple to monitor - Mick Channon's Ctappers in the opener and Bellaboosh in the 4.40.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

You couldn't help but feel for connections of Nathaniel (5/2). The colt ran a stormer just a fortnight on from the Eclipse but was beaten a nose by Arc-winning filly Danedream (9/1). Deep Brillante (20/1) pulled hard early on but was outclassed up the home straight finishing eighth of the ten.

Al Co (5/1f) put up a decent effort in the Summer Plate to go down a short head to I Have Dreamed (9/1). Having said that, he had it all to do up the home straight and in the circumstances did well to get so close on the line - the pair pulled eight lengths clear of Qulinton (12/1) in third. The plan was obviously to ride Al Co wide and give him a clear sight of the obstacles - he doesn't look the biggest and perhaps was less fluent than some at the fences but he was certainly motoring at the finish. That'll Do (11/2) was priced longer in Friday's tissue and looked likely to be involved as they started the turn for home but faded to finish eighth; stableamte Spock (8/1) fell at the ninth.

The two to monitor both obliged - Ctappers at 3/1 while Bellaboosh (9/2) held 11/10 favourite Ballybough Gorta a length on the line.