Nic Doggett provides an overview of the key things to note on Sunday.
Eye-catching stable switcher at Brighton
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand relax.
Five days of Royal Ascot are behind us, five days of fine weather and the only real complaint being an apparent draw bias on the straight track. That’s not bad, is it?
Sunday is quieter, but there are interesting runners, not least Rockafeller Skank who seeks a fifth win in the space of 11 days. However, his chance at Brighton under a penalty is obvious and his price will be prohibitive, so of more interest to me is Sarangpur in the preceding Bet Now With fairplaybet.co.uk Handicap at 14:56.
The four-year-old Arizona gelding has had two trainers in Ireland, failing to show much in maidens for Peter Lawlor, but then improving significantly – as the market suggested he would - once sent into handicaps for Paul Mulligan.
He now has the Timeform ‘trainer uplift’ and ‘jockey uplift’ flags following a switch to Richard Hughes, with Finley Marsh getting the leg up, and this half-brother to the 1¼m/11f winner (stays 13.5f) Hunters Run is expected to take another step forward now up in distance once more.
Feature race at Pontefract
Less than 10 minutes later, the listed Pontefract Castle Fillies' Stakes (15:05) is the feature race of the afternoon.
Ralph Beckett has made a habit of targeting this 1½m contest, taking the trophy back home to Hampshire four times in the last eight seasons. His representative this year is Revoir, who was reeled in by Dreamasar in a similar contest at Haydock last month having been in front a long way out.
Orionis’ in-form trainer William Haggas has a good record at the track, and her form looks very solid; she beat subsequent winner Venetia in a Goodwood contest that Haggas had previously won with Santorini Star who has since gone on to score twice at Group 2 level.
Owen Burrows has a profitable record at Pontefract, and ‘Horse In Focus’ Merveilleux Lapin (Wonderful Rabbit to me and you) caught the eye in defeat on her British debut at Windsor, but Burrows’ record isn’t as good as that of Joseph O’Brien who has a level stakes profit of +38.11 despite a lesser strike-rate.
Not content with dominating Royal Ascot, he saddles the consistent Lemsairbat who ran her usual honest race behind stablemate Sindria at Gown last month.
With Coedana (Ed Bethell) - who chased home ready winner Estrange in the re-routed Pinnacle Stakes at Carlisle last month – also in the field, it looks a decent renewal.
Horses In Focus at Hexham
There are four jumps ‘Horses In Focus’ up in the north on Sunday, with Ostend the most interesting in the Tynedale Function Suite Handicap Chase at 16:13.
The Timeform pace prediction for this 2½m contest is ‘very weak’ which should suit the top-weight whose best performances have come from the front; if he can see off Passengerontheship – who seeks his fourth C&D win in a month – early on then he could dominate.
His trainer Mickey Bowen has the ‘Hot Trainer’ flag, thanks in part to a run in June that has seen 6 of 24 runners win, with a further 13 finish in the top four. He hasn’t had the former Alastair Ralph-trained Ostend for long but there was lots of promise in his second to Mahon's Glory at Market Rasen on Friday night.
With ideal ground conditions once more, he could take a bit of pegging back now seriously down in class (0-110 from 0-140).
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