Monday racing tips: Andy Ayres picks out his best bet for today’s racing while updating us on all the latest gossip from the tracks
Don't miss out on all the latest talk from the tracks as Andy Ayres revels in a Champions Day to remember
CHAMPIONS DAY at Ascot certainly lived up to its billing.
The sun shone, the house-full signs were up and there were more top athletes on show than in an Olympic Village.
John Gosden bossed proceedings, sending out three Group winners and playing his pieces better than Garry Kasparov by keeping Cracksman and Roaring Lion apart.
Gosden’s a man blessed with charm and authority – Cary Grant in Ernie Els’ body – and must have used both to get the Qatar Racing crew to run Roaring Lion in the QE II rather than Champion Stakes.
The trip was wrong, the ground too soft and he’d probably prefer racing round a bend, but this colt still found a way to get his head in front.
He’s a rough, tough, bar-room brawler of a horse and you’d walk a mile in tight boots to see him tackle the Yanks in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
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Aidan O’Brien was mob-handed in the Long Distance Cup and his team seemed intent on locking Gosden’s Stradivarius in tighter than a lifer on Alcatraz.
Their cunning plan would have worked a treat but for Ryan Moore taking forty winks on the home bend and letting Frankie Dettori nip up his inside, instantly pinching a couple of lengths that was never going to be returned.
Dettori’s career graph reads like a ride at Alton Park but, Lester aside, there has never been a better big race jockey.
That said, ride of the weekend goes to Pat Cosgrave for his epic effort on Best Solution in Australia’s Caulfield Cup on Saturday morning.
He banged the horse out from a diabolical draw, kicked for home while the locals were still waiting for their alarms to ring and punched harder than Rocky to get home in a desperate finish.
The race was worth £1.8 million to the winner and Cosgrave’s career defining effort was worth every penny of that.
Kempton Park races five times this week – another astute piece of race-planning – and kicked their marathon off with a well-attended jumps card yesterday.
Nicky Henderson rules the roost at these meetings and his three runners were bet like certainties.
Verdana Blue (6-5 to 8-13) duly danced away from a decent field in the feature hurdle and Casablanca Mix (5-2 to 11-10) might have followed suit but for getting four faults at the last in a competitive 2m2f handicap chase.
Monday Magic
IMPERIAL CHARM (6.40 Kempton) didn’t look happy on the track at Newmarket last time and is good enough to win this before moving up a grade.
Then there was Wallace Spirit (7-2 to 5-2), who looked certain to land the last until jibbing violently left after the final flight, leaving Jeremiah McGrath to ride the finish on one rein and side-saddle. The horse got beat but his jockey has reportedly been offered a job with Chipperfield’s Circus!
It’s back on the all-weather for a competitive card at Kempton tonight, where IMPERIAL CHARM (6.40) has outstanding claims.
Simon Crisford’s filly got unbalanced in the dip when beaten by a couple of smart looking fillies at Newmarket last time and has the form to win this.