John Ingles of Timeform provides an overview of the key things to note on Monday.
Three points of interest
Novamay looks thrown in under a penalty
It’s not often that a horse is 12 lb clear in the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings for a handicap but that’s what Novamay has in hand in the six furlong handicap at Ayr (15:10). It’s also rare for a horse to win a handicap by nine lengths, which is what she did at Ripon a week ago and accounts for her being so far ahead in the ratings – the BHA handicapper will be putting her up considerably more in future than the 6 lb penalty she gets to carry here.
After going without a winner between the beginning of May and mid-June, Novamay’s trainer Michael Dods is in much better form now and, having finished runner-up in three of her four starts during the stable’s barren spell, Novamay was much improved at Ripon when winning for the first time. Making all the running against the near rail, she drew right away in the final furlong with the time backing up her fairly useful performance.
That win came against fellow three-year-olds whereas Novamay is taking on older rivals here with claimer Rhys Elliott taking 5 lb off her back. She’s well entered up in the coming week, so connections may well be aiming to strike again after this before her revised rating kicks in.
Max of Stars to stay unbeaten at Newton Abbot
Horses with good records at a particular track are usually trained at least somewhere near the course in question, but that’s not the case with Max of Stars. Trained by Ollie Pears near Malton in North Yorkshire, Max of Stars has developed an affinity for Newton Abbot at the other end of the country.
It’s not hard to see why she should have won all three of her starts there though, as the tight, flat track favours handy types and Max of Stars has only one way of running, going keenly from the front. In fact, when she won her first race there as a three-year-old, her official winning margin was recorded as 68 lengths! She followed up at Newton Abbot on her next start and has since won three races elsewhere, including when returning from a breathing operation to win by 13 lengths at Southwell last month.
Back at Newton Abbot, Max of Stars gained her latest win there ten days ago when defeating the Paul Nicholls-trained odds-on shot Seeyouinmydreams. This is another four-runner contest (15:20), and potentially a trappy one, but she should again take plenty of catching at the top of her game.
Windsor regular Amazonian Dream weighted to win again
Rod Millman’s sprinter Amazonian Dream is a frequent visitor to Windsor on Monday nights, and he’ll be having his fifth consecutive race there on Monday evening in a qualifier for the final of the track’s Sprint Series (20:00). While he has finished third in a couple of those recent races, he was below form a fortnight ago in a class 2 handicap and is back in a class 4 contest here. He’s also tumbling in the weights and is now on a mark 9 lb lower than when starting the year on the all-weather, having ended 2024 with back-to-back wins at Southwell and Kempton.
Amazonian Dream has won three times over course and distance in all and was twice successful from seven runs at Windsor last year, as well as being beaten a neck by useful three-year-old Elmonjed in the Sprint Series Final.
Dropped a further 2 lb since his last run, Amazonian heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and for the first time at Windsor this year he has Oisin Murphy back on board who partnered him to both of last year’s successes.
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