John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Silca Bay the one to note at Brighton
Wednesday sees the start of Brighton’s three-day Festival of Racing, with the most valuable event on the opening day being the Brighton Mile Challenge Handicap (15:30) with a first prize of £10,468 which isn’t bad for a class 4 contest.
Eve Johnson Houghton has had 19 winners at Brighton over the last five years – more than at any other turf track – and at an impressive 23% strike rate which makes for a very healthy profit of £65.45 if all the stable’s Brighton runners had been backed at a £1 stake. Among the stable’s wins at Brighton are the last two editions of this race with Uncle Dick who had a terrific record at the track, winning there eight times.
Uncle Dick was ridden to both his wins in the Brighton Mile Challenge by 7 lb claimer Oliver Carmichael whose first success in the saddle was provided by the same horse. Carmicheal has struck up a good relationship this season with the same stable’s Silca Bay who could well follow in Uncle Dick’s footsteps. The partnership has twice been successful already this summer, with Silca Bay overcoming trouble in running to win on turf for the first time at Goodwood in June. He then won again at Newmarket last time where he showed a good turn of foot to come from last to first, earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag. Heading the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings here, Silca Bay looks to hold strong claims.
Betweenthesticks out to repeat last year’s win at Pontefract
Anyone who went racing in the north of England in particular during the 1980s and early the following decade would almost certainly have come across that tough and prolific sprint handicapper Chaplins Club at some point. In a lengthy career he won a total of 24 races from the ages of two to twelve. Not only did he win nine races in 1985, he repeated that feat three years later. If it seemed like he raced every week, it’s because he often did, more than once winning races on consecutive days, and in July 1991 was turned out seven times that month which included a win and two seconds at Pontefract.
It’s at Pontefract where the David Chapman-trained sprinter is remembered with the Chaplins Club Handicap (16:15). Understandably, it’s a race Chapman’s granddaughter Ruth Carr is keen to win each year, doing so with Chosen One in 2013, Lexington Place in 2017 and last year with Betweenthesticks, whilst saddling several placed runners too.
Betweenthesticks held on by a short head to make all the running at odds of 33/1 a year ago and has since shown that Pontefract’s stiff five furlongs suits him well, earning the ‘Horses For Courses’ flag. He won there again on his next visit this April, following up a win at Wolverhampton, and has put in solid placed efforts over today’s course and distance on his last two starts. Despite that, the handicapper has eased him back to his last winning mark and he heads the Timeform weighted-adjusted ratings in a race that’s sure to have been mapped out for him for some time.
Charyn’s brother makes his debut at Kempton
Kempton’s evening card features no fewer than five novices, and the first division of the seven-furlong contest for two-year-olds (17:50) looks interesting with newcomers making up most of the field.
At 450,000 guineas, ‘Hot Trainer’ Roger Varian’s colt Chymbulak was much the most expensive among those making their debuts, and with good reason, as he’s a full brother to the stable’s high-class miler Charyn who earned a Timeform rating of 127. Both brothers are owned by Nurlan Bizakov who named Chymbulak after a ski resort in his native Kazakhstan.
Now a stallion at his owner’s stud in France, Charyn was much improved as a four-year-old when he won six races, including the Queen Anne Stakes, the Prix Jacques le Marois and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. But while Charyn didn’t win at three, he did show useful form at two, winning first time out at Haydock almost four years ago to the day at a Sky Bet Sunday Series meeting at Haydock and ending that year with a Group 2 success in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte at Chantilly. Another of Chymbulak’s brothers Wings of War won the Mill Reef Stakes, so he’s certainly bred to make his mark as a two-year-old and one to keep an eye on.
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