It’s the end of the week and, so far, the weather’s been kind of miserable. So… we wanted to cheer you up with a complete guide to Doncaster racing today.
Here’s what our race analyst Andy Newton has discovered in today’s racing…
2:00 – We get going with a tricky 2 year-old contest so stakes should be kept to a minimum here with most of the runners either making their debuts or having only had a few runs. As we all know these juveniles can improve leaps and bounds from one run to the next so the market will be a good guide. Ryan Moore catches the eye riding for Richard Hannon on the unraced Jane Rose so is one for the shortlist, but the call here is SARDENYA. With two career runs this Roger Charlton-trained juvenile is one of the more experienced in the field (2 runs) and after a recent second at Lingfield looks to be coming to the boil. Add in that the Charlton camp are in fire at the moment with a 44% strike-rate at the time of writing then this further backs-up that their horses are in rude health at the moment.
2.30 – The William Haggas yard are going great guns at present and the fact they’ve booked Ryan Moore to ride their Learn By Heart will make this one popular. He was a solid third on debut at Haydock and with the expected improvement should be going close. However, the call here is the Richard Hannon-trained COSTAL DRIVE. Another that was third on debut – also at Haydock, but being sent off 20/1 that day then he clearly ran better than expected. But this race has been a favourite of the Hannon’s in recent times, having won the prize in 2009, 2011 and 2013 so it’s clearly a contest they like to target so that’s a further plus ahead of the selections chance.
3.00 – A very tough race to unravel here, but with the Ivan Furtado stable operating around a 29% strike-rate at the moment then their Ski Blast might be worth a small interest. Ryan Moore is on another Hannon-trained runner – Ashwaq – so that one commands respect too, but the Ruth Carr yard took this race 12 months ago so their ADVENTUREMAN (e/w) might be worth sticking with. This 5 year-old flopped last time at Nottingham, but he did have excuses. That was over 1m2f, while the slightly softer ground wasn’t ideal. Back to a mile here is a plus after running second over this trip in his earlier outings this season, while jockey James Sullivan knows the horse very well.
To get the rest of the selections, please continue reading this post on our blog here.
All the best,
The Race Advisor
