AUSSIE RAIDER ON TARGET
Friday June 23
Betting Box Tipping Guide
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BETTING BOX
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FIXED ODDS
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2pts Takeover Target at best morning price (3.45 Royal Ascot) |
All looks set for a famous Royal Ascot double. |
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1pt each-way One Putra at best morning price (4.25 Royal Ascot) |
On a roll and one to follow despite his big weight. |
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1pt each-way Strike Up The Band at best morning price (4.25 Royal Ascot) |
Represents shrewd team and shaped with promise in better races than this. |
Takeover Target bids for a sprint double in Saturday's Golden Jubilee Stakes and he looks to have a very good chance of following in Choisir's hoofprints. He won the King's Stand Stakes on Tuesday and if he has come out of that race well he is the one to beat. He escapes a Group One penalty here so meets Pivotal Point, third on Tuesday, on five pounds better terms while his compatriot Glamour Puss was back in seventh in the King's Stand. It is a question of has Takeover Target recovered in time? It seems so. His trainer Joe Janiak implied he was a little under-done for the race earlier in the week and would come on for it! His best Australian form is also over six furlongs so he has an awful lot going for him other than a draw of 13 of 19. There is a heavy bias in favour of racing by the stands' rail so Jay Ford, who did such a wonderful job in the King's Stand, is going to have to track across a little. If he does and Takeover Target is the same horse who turned up on Tuesday, they are going to take a great deal of beating. Iffraaj represents Godolphin and was a very good horse for Michael Jarvis last season, winning the Wokingham at this meeting. He lacks a recent run and while the Godolphin team are slowly emerging from the doldrums, they have had one or two run disappointingly this week. He is drawn moderately in 15 too. Had he drawn better and the stable been in better form I may have gone for him but they are concerns and the way things are we must suspect he may run a couple of pounds below his best. Amadeus Wolf returns to sprinting after running in the 2000 Guineas and he was a very good horse as a two-year-old, winning the Middle Park Stakes. He was weakening in the final furlong at Newmarket where he almost certainly didn't get the mile and it is fascinating to see him back at sprint distances. He is a quality individual but whether he is up to beating a proven top class sprinter in Takeover Target remains to be seen. We don't really know where Amadeus Wolf is going to fit into the sprinting ladder at this stage but as a juvenile he was one of the best. Gift Horse won the Stewards' Cup last season and ran a pretty good race on his reappearance at York. He is still trying to make the leap from handicaps to pattern company and he disappointed on his last run in a Group One. He does have a good turn of foot and you couldn't discount him from stall three with Kieren Fallon in the saddle. There are a lot of other good sprinters by British standards in the field, horses that will win their races, but they are all up against it. Rather like Choisir a few years ago, Takeover Target's win in the King's Stand Stakes suggests the Australian sprinters are just a bit better. With him escaping a penalty he looks sure to take the world of beating. The big betting race of the day is the Wokingham Handicap with trainer David Nicholls having 18 runners in it at the five-day stage! He has whittled that down a little and the pick of his team may be Strike Up The Band. He has run a couple of good races in Listed events this season at Lingfield and Newbury, finshing behind Kingsgate Prince and Assertive on both occasions. Both of those rivals have run well here during the week. He was a very consistent two-year-old last term and into handicap company he makes plenty of each-way appeal at around 33/1. The draw hasn't been overkind in 21 but the jockeys are tracking across which will help. The other one I'll put up against the field is Michael Jarvis' One Putra. This is another horse proven in better company, winning a Listed race at Windsor last time. He will rate higher in the future and could be a few pounds well in here.
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