The Clipper Handicap at York's Ebor Festival comes under the spotlight as our Matt Brocklebank looks to unearth more big-priced winners.
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2pts win Perotto in Clipper Handicap at 12/1 (General)
Hot on the heels of the Golden Mile, York’s Clipper Handicap is another seriously strong and richly-endowed mile handicap and it invariably attracts a bunch of the same horses who lined up at Goodwood.
Four (Blue For You, What’s The Story, Poet’s Society and Chil The Kite) of the last eight Clipper winners contested the Golden Mile en route to the Knavesmire, while 2020 winner Montatham was due to run at Goodwood but was withdrawn on account of the (good to firm) ground on the day.
This year’s Golden Mile was run on a relatively testing surface, although the official description was changed to good to soft, soft in places from soft immediately afterwards, so it clearly wasn’t staged in the worst conditions of the week by any stretch.
A lot of the focus going into it surrounded Lattam, who had skipped an engagement at Ascot the week before and was sent off the 5/1 favourite from stall three, and with conditions seemingly to suit, having gone up just 1lb for his nose victory over Spirit Catcher at Newcastle at the end of June.
Winner of the Irish Lincolnshire at the Curragh and second to subsequent Royal Hunt Cup winner Jimi Hendrix in the Spring Cup at Newbury earlier in the year, Lattam's profile is understandably attractive and there won’t be a shortage of punters willing to go in again with William Haggas' runner following a typically luckless trip down on the inside at Goodwood.
What you do find in the long-range betting for these major handicaps is that the early value will more often than not be found nearer the top of the market, especially when you consider there are around 40 horses currently priced at 25/1 or shorter. A whole load of those will no doubt be bigger prices closer to the time, with more places being dangled post-declarations, too, and the current 12/1 Lattam looks perfectly fair.
Having said that, he is still being priced up largely on potential and what further improvement he might yet have in the locker, and at the same price PEROTTO has much less to prove in terms of ability to win races from his current mark.
Whereas Lattam sits on a career-high perch of 95, Perotto is still 12lb below his peak BHA rating of 110 and, despite not being with Roger Varian long, has already looked right back on it this year, landing a nice pot when beating solid Sandown yardstick Ouzo with plenty to spare in the Coral Challenge at the start of July.
Perotto also contested the Golden Mile at Goodwood and ran about as well as could have been expected from stall 17 which meant he didn't have much cover throughout. He was tapped for toe when the (always-prominent) first two kicked for home but then ran on nicely despite Ryan Moore not at all punishing him when it was clear he wasn’t getting to them.
I’m still far from convinced he fully stays a mile on testing ground anyway, but if we get a spot of nicer weather for York then this track could really play to his strengths as he should get more of a race run to suit around here. In fact, he’s had one previous visit to York and ran a cracker, beaten a neck when second in a six-furlong nursery at this same Ebor meeting as a juvenile, so it makes sense he'll be aimed at the Clipper this time around.
No doubt I’ll have an each-way dart against him after we know the final field and the state of the ground, but Perotto rates a pretty strong fancy at this point and I’m backing him accordingly.
Varian has another interesting potential runner in the shape of Akhu Najla, who was returning from almost a year off the track when beaten a length and a half into fourth behind Ghaly at Ascot last month.
He’s lightly raced and it’ll be interesting to see if his trainer pitches him into this sort of company, or whether he’s kept to slightly calmer waters.
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In the same Ascot race on July 29 (replay above), John Quinn’s Empirestateofmind hinted quite strongly at a return to form and he’s the yard’s only Clipper entry, though he would be 1lb wrong running off 99 as he’s been dropped a pound since the cut-off point.
He’s a perfectly fair price at 25/1, but I’d just like to be a bit firmer in terms of intended participation before recommending Empirestateofmind as a bet, so will stick with the one selection still three weeks out from the race.
First published on Sporting Life Plus at 1500 BST on 06/08/23
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