Timeform provide an overview of the key things to note on Sunday, including on the Sky Bet Sunday Series card at Pontefract.
Goldie Frank about pot plundering
Jim Goldie has embraced the Sky Bet Sunday Series concept like few other trainers and he could be rewarded with Letsbefrank’s second £100,000 bonus (for the first horse who wins three races in the series) in three years at Pontefract on Sunday.
In 2024 the son of Frankel landed the £100k pot in the same 2m1f (and a bit) race (18:15), prevailing by a short head off a mark of 76, after previously winning Sunday Series races at Hamilton and Thirsk, so Goldie knows just how to plot his way to the bonus.
This year the six-year-old won Sunday Series races at Musselburgh and Hamilton, before having his first crack at the bonus at Thirsk on May 31 where he was third over a mile-and-a-half.
Since then all roads have led to Pontefract and this race, his latest run at Ayr little more than a stepping stone to Sunday’s assignment, and, rated 78, he looks well primed to scoop the money once again given he looks well weighted back up in trip.
Hughes has another flying filly on his hands
Earlier on at Pontefract Richard Hughes can land the feature Listed EBF Sky Bet Club Flying Fillies’ Stakes (16:45) over six furlongs with Jaber Abdullah’s America Queen.
Hughes has forged a bit of a reputation for the way he nurtures quick fillies, what with No Half Measures winning the July Cup, while Sayidah Dariyan and Bint Archange have won pattern races in the same blue and white silks as America Queen over sprint distances.
The daughter of Havana Grey has been highly tried, as well, running in the Group 1 Cheveley Park at two, while she was second in the Nell Gwyn and a good fourth last time in the Group 3 Summer Stakes, won by Flora Of Bermuda.
The return to six furlongs suited her and with this slight drop in grade in mind a very bold bid looks likely from this front-running filly from the inside berth in stall one.
Donnacha looks to follow in his father’s footsteps
Finally, over in Ireland, the feature Group 3 Newbridge Silverware Royal Whip Stakes (16:25) over 10 furlongs at the Curragh looks at the mercy of Donnacha O’Brien’s A Boy Named Susie.
This race is well used to very short-priced favourites going in, with Donnacha’s father, Aidan, responsible for seven odds-on favourites winning this race this century, the shortest of them all being Fame And Glory who obliged at odds of 1/12 in 2010.
A Boy Named Susie looks unlikely to go off that short, not with both Aidan and Joseph O’Brien fielding horses against him, but Donnacha has the clear ace in the pack here with his colt 13lb clear on Timeform ratings.
Fourth in the Prix du Jockey Club and second to Constitution River in the Coral-Eclipse, that form puts him head and shoulders above these and, like the seven winning odds-on shots from Ballydoyle before him, he should be well up to the task.
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