John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Book of Life the ratings pick
Book of Life began his career in France with Andre Fabre before moving on to Ian Williams for whom he won at Wolverhampton early last year but a second success in this country is overdue and looks like it could come in the first division of Newcastle’s mile handicap (17:15).
Book of Life is with Pat Morris these days and is certainly being kept busy, having raced at least once each month so far this year. To his credit, though, he has held his form really well, making the frame more often than not, raced mainly on the all-weather, and finishing runner-up on five occasions. The handicapper has given him a chance, though, because he’s on a career-low mark now and potentially well treated, coming out 5 lb clear in the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings.
He was an unlucky loser from the same mark at Wolverhampton last week when a close third behind Shamacid. Still going well when badly hampered early in the straight, he recovered from that interference only to encounter more trouble in the final hundred yards. Jason Hart takes over from a 7 lb claimer here, and that last run underlines that he’s on a good mark if things drop right for him.
No Sun Goddess in Battle Fever’s way
Hamilton stages the final of their nursery series (18:20) with more than £20,000 on offer to the winner. Kevin Ryan, who has been among the winners in recent days, has won this race before and saddles top weight Battle Fever who carries 9-9 and has to give upwards of 10 lb to all his rivals.
However, the switch to nursery company represents a drop in class for Battle Fever who less than a fortnight ago was tasked with taking on Group 1-winning filly Sun Goddess in the valuable sales race at York, the Harry’s Half Million. Not surprisingly, Battle Fever was found wanting against the smart Phoenix Stakes winner, but he ran a cracker at 80/1 to beat the rest of the big field, leading before the winner got out of trouble to run him down and pull six lengths clear.
Earlier last month, Battle Fever had made a good impression when getting off the mark in a novice at Thirsk by three lengths. His York run shows that he stays six furlongs and a BHA mark of 88 for his first nursery looks a very fair one. Indeed, it makes him top rated on Timeform weight adjusted ratings by a couple of pounds and this powerful looking colt should be well up to conceding weight all round.
‘Horse In Focus’ Blakefell due a win
Blakefell has been doing plenty of travelling up and down the country from Ivan Furtado’s North Yorkshire base, with his last three runs coming at Musselburgh, where he had won his maiden in May, Kempton and Musselburgh again before heading back down to Kempton (20:00) again this evening. The flat, right-handed, speed-favouring nature of both tracks evidently suit this forward-going sort very well as he has only been beaten a length at most in each of those three runs.
He went closest to opening his handicap account over this evening’s course and distance on his penultimate start when getting edged out by Victory Ace, a useful sort in top form as he has since gone on to complete a hat-trick.
Since then, Blakefell suffered another narrow defeat at Musselburgh last week when beaten a neck by another progressive rival, Two Commanders, but stayed on once headed and earned the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag. Clearly well up to winning a race from his current mark, Blakefell looks interesting reunited with Silvestre de Sousa who was aboard on his last run at Kempton, as he’s 3 lb clear in the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings.
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