Need help with your selections for the Sky Bet Sunday Series ITV7 game from Musselburgh and Pontefract? Check out Oli Bell's guide.
We’re on air for the first leg of the Sky Bet Sunday Series at 3.45 on Sunday on ITV4 and I really hope you can join us.
The first race, the 3.55 at Musselburgh, is one of unraced two-year-olds. These are the babies of the sport as horses only start racing at two and none of them have ever been to a racetrack before. It’s always fascinating to see how they behave beforehand and then through the race.
Buckshaw Village is an interesting runner for trainer Richard Fahey and owner David Armstrong. His sire (or dad) is Birchwood who made a winning start for the same team back in 2015.
But the below races are the ones that form part of the free-to-play ITV7 guide and are all live on our show too so check out my thoughts.
Pontefract 16:10
This is a really good race. There are a host of interesting runners in it. Sir Michael Stoute is a legend of the training ranks and with top jockey Ryan Moore riding Regal Reality he must be looked at. However BRUNCH, trained near Darlington by Michael Dods, can repel the southern raiders.
He has some very good form to his name, looked unlucky not to finish closer at Royal Ascot last time, and William Buick, who is in the thick of the jockeys’ title race, is booked to ride.
Musselburgh: 16:20
We need to be with TOMMY G here. He’s eight now, which is getting on in terms of horses racing on the Flat, but is a legend of the Scottish circuit. He’s won twice at Ayr, another of the big tracks in Scotland, already in 2021 and he loves this place too.
He looks the way to go while other in-form runners include Asdaa, Noble Crusade and Detective. This is a very interesting race as it’s for apprentice jockeys, which as the name implies, are riders who are learning their trade.
This is a race for two-year-olds – and a handicap too – which is why it’s called a nursery. It is very competitive as we still don’t know a great deal about these horses.
I’m with ATOMIC LADY. She’s won her last two races at York and Ripon and like with human athletes, winning breeds confidence. She’s full of it right now and that could make her hard to beat.
Musselburgh: 17:15
What a race this is, with 17 runners in it over five furlongs, the shortest distance horses compete over. It’s all about speed but with such a big field you’ll need to have luck in running too.
This will be quick and I’m hoping PRIMO’S COMET comes out on top. I spoke to his rider Paul Mulrennan earlier this week for the Sporting Life feature below and his partner loves this track, having won twice here on his last three runs.
Some trainers are specialists when it comes to sprinters and Paul Midgley is definitely one of those. Good Luck Fox runs for him and is one to consider being another to have won at this course before.
A race restricted to female horses and an intriguing one too. It’s a 700-mile round trip from Newmarket to Musselburgh so clearly trainer Marco Botti fancies the chances of Rising Star but I prefer MYRISTKA.
She and Atomic Lady are trained in Malton, North Yorkshire by Tim Easterby. She’s owned by King Power, set up by the late Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha who of course owned Leicester City when they were crowned Premier League champions.
King Power employ Silvestre de Sousa as their jockey and this brilliant rider heads up to Scotland. He could prove the difference between victory and defeat here.
Musselburgh: 18:15
Mark Johnston is joint top-trainer at Musselburgh this season having trained seven winners so far in 2021 at the track, the same as Keith Dalgleish. If you’d had £1 on every one of Mark’s 26 runners here this season you’d be winning £22.08.
He runs two in this, Fred and ETON COLLEGE, and I think the latter could further improve those stats.
He’s already won at Musselburgh this season and was third here two runs ago. He likes the place and is ridden by Joe Fanning, a long-time stable jockey to the Johnston team and who rode Subjectivist to a memorable and hugely popular win for them in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in June.
We’ve already mentioned that Keith Dalgleish is a trainer to follow around here and he saddles two runners in our finale.
He runs Euro Implosion and LET ME BE in this and both are prolific winners. The former is bidding for a four-timer having won his last three races but I am sweet on his stablemate.
What’s not to like? He’s won a remarkable six races from eight starts this year and just gets better and better. Jockey Callum Rodriguez knows him inside out and I just can’t oppose him.
