What a change this weekend from all the top notch handicaps of last week with a two year old sales handicap taking centre stage today! Backing one in a field of unexposed developing horses is not something I do often but we have a nice angle on the form of Harry’s Dancer today.
At Royal Ascot, Bet Alchemist members had Tiggy Wiggy onside and watched as she finished strongly but couldn’t catch Eddie Lynam trained Anthem Alexander when second in the Queen Mary Group 2 Stakes. Harry’s Dancer finished just over 6 lengths behind in eight place that day but numbers never tell the full story.
Harry’s Dancer was slow out of the stalls before travelling well on the far side behind pacemaker littlemissblakeney to the furlong pole. She tired meeting the rising ground as the middle to near side group containing the first three home pulled clear. Frankie was not hard on Harry’s Dancer when her chance of winning had gone and she did not have an overly hard race. However, the key thing from that race and form is that she competed off level weights.
Today, Harry’s Dancer gets to run off a featherweight 8 stone in receipt of 15lbs from Tiggy Wiggy. Newbury racecourse will suit Harry’s Dancer much better than Ascot with an easier last furlong which should see her finish off her race and with a 15lb advantage she has a massive chance of turning the form around with 9/2 favourite Tiggy Wiggy.
Any of the forecast rain will not inconvenience her too much as she won her maiden on good ground by 5 lengths before Al Shaqab Racing bought into her. Al shaqab Racing buy quality and have the likes of Toronado, Treve, Olympic Glory, The Wow Signal & Baitha Alga donning their colours.
John Quinn is a very shrewd trainer who knows how to target valuable handicaps and today’s purse of ~123k to the winner will not have escaped his radar. Better known for his jumpers John trained The Wow Signal to win the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot as well as Blythe Knight to win the Group 3 Diomed Stakes at Espom a few years ago. Once he gets the right horse no better man to deliver.
Selection: 1 Point *EW Harry’s Dancer Newbury 15:50 at 8/1 Bet365, Skybet, Ladbrokes & Boylesports, all offering 4 places & ¼ odds
Best of luck,
Nicky
