Saturday racing tips: Andy Ayres picks out his best bet for today’s racing while updating us on all the latest news from the tracks this week
Don't miss out on all the latest talk from the tracks as Andy Ayres discusses all the action including his latest notebook additions
IT was hotter than a George Foreman grill at Lingfield on Wednesday.
The paddock was declared too warm for horses, car park attendants knotted hankies for hats and it was footwear rather than favourites that flip-flopped.
It was interesting to see wily old Sir Mark Prescott in attendance though, particularly as he had two absolute certainties running at Bath.
Sir Mark’s sole entrant at Lingfield was the apparently hopeless TWISTER, who had a string of bagels next to his name and a CV that looked about as tempting as a school dinner.
You didn’t have to be Morse to work out something was afoot and even a Specsavers boycotter could see Twister looked fitter than a butcher’s pooch on the way to post.
Sir Mark is Newmarket’s senior statesman now – you bought feed in shillings and listened to Max Bygraves when he first took out a licence – but the great man moved like a gazelle in order to clock the prices here.
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His gelding was bet at fancy odds, travelled like a dream and looked set to win until being swallowed late by Alan King’s spoilsport Giving Glances.
Twister is set to do more travelling than Judith Chalmers now – he’s entered at Lingfield, Pontefract and Sandown in the next few days – and could run-up a sequence.
It’s good to see the BHA counter the heatwave and firm ground by staging extra All Weather fixtures at Wolverhampton and Lingfield on Sunday and Monday.
The synthetic surfaces should be kinder to horses and, therefore, encourage bigger fields. Sounds sensible, doesn’t it.
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Strange then that Lingfield are hosting a seven race all-turf card on Saturday evening. Now how does that make sense?
I’m sure poor Eoin Walsh was equally baffled after being whacked with a three-day ban for careless riding at Windsor on Monday.
The claimer had to perform a circus act to stay aboard KNIGHT ERRANT after he was almost decked at the intersection.
He picked the well-backed favourite off the floor, dusted him down and then rode the mother and father of a finish to get home by a neck.
Saturday Stonker
NATE THE GREAT (4.15 Ascot) has been aimed at this Listed event since finishing a game second at the Royal Meeting and should be hard to beat.
In terms of miracles, we’ve got water into wine, feeding the 5,000 and then Eoin Walsh on Knight Errant – it was that good.
Then the men with clipboards give him a three-day - all expenses unpaid – holiday!
There was a massive move for Sir Michael Stoute’s WHITEHALL (3-1 to 6-4) in the 1m handicap that ended this card. Word was the trainer considered him a certainty and plenty were prepared to follow the money.
Unfortunately Whitehall had a long drag on his Woodbine before leaving the stalls, skulked round in rear and came home a miserable fourth. I don’t think you’d want this one as your neighbour in the trenches.
There were some handsome two-year-olds on show in the opener at Sandown on Friday and the market got it spot on with John Gosden’s BEATBOXER (100-30 to 9-4).
Some horses have the X-factor and this colt definitely falls into that category. He’s big, bred better than the head boy at Eton and has that all important ability to quicken.
This win was expected – I’m told lads in the yard would have been gutted if he were beaten – and a return to Sandown for the Solario Stakes could be next.
Glorious Goodwood is always a hard meeting for punters – the round course is trickier to negotiate than the Crystal Maze – but granted luck in running BEAT THE BANK should go well in Wednesday’s Qatar Sussex Stakes.
He’s proven on the track, bounced back better than Zebedee to win last time and looks a bit of value at around 7-1.