John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Stellarmasterpiece going for five-timer
Middleham trainer Micky Hammond has enjoyed a fine start to the jumps season, operating at a 27% strike rate with 16 winners on the board already – the stable had 20 winners in the whole of the last jumps campaign.
Grey mare Stellarmasterpiece, who began her career in Poland, has played a large part in that success and is now bidding to complete a five-timer in Sedgefield’s mares’ handicap hurdle (14:30). Her winning streak has coincided with her association with champion jockey Sean Bowen, and the partnership completed a hat-trick of wins at Stratford between May and July, with her third win coming from a stone higher mark than her first one.
But Stellarmasterpiece is a fair handicapper on the Flat too and a Catterick specialist. All four or her Flat wins in Britain have come at the track, her latest victory coming in an amateur riders contest when switching back to the Flat last month, winning that race for the second year running under former champion amateur Becky Smith who retired from the saddle afterwards. The yard’s current assistant trainer, Smith is set to become joint licence-holder with Hammond before long. Back over hurdles now and reunited with Bowen, Stellarmasterpiece heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and looks the one to beat again.
Marco Polo going places
His odds will no doubt be cramped but ‘Hot Trainer’ Aidan O’Brien’s Marco Polo has as much potential as any of the day’s runners, lining up in the six-furlong maiden for two-year-olds at Cork (16:40). The son of Night of Thunder has an impressive list of future entries, and while Sunday’s National Stakes might come too soon, he also has engagements in the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury, as well as both the Middle Park and the Dewhurst at Newmarket.
Despite being yet to win a race, he has been tried at pattern level already and even started the 13/8 favourite for the Gimcrack Stakes at York last month. However, physically he looked more of a longer-term type and was still very raw, not settling fully and running green before being left behind to finish eighth of the ten runners behind Arapaho Gold.
Marco Polo remains with plenty of potential and had made a very promising start to his career in a Curragh maiden just twelve days earlier. Ryan Moore chose to ride a more experienced stablemate, but it was Marco Polo who fared best of his stable’s three runners, finishing just over a length second to another newcomer, Push The Boat Out. The winner went on to beat Marco Polo’s Coventry Stakes-winning stablemate Great Barrier Reef in the Round Tower Stakes later in August. Back in much calmer waters here, Marco Polo can get off the mark before having his sights raised again.
Uzincso can show younger rivals the way home
John Butler’s ten-year-old Uzincso could probably find his way round Kempton blindfolded, being the veteran of 37 starts at the track. Apart from the odd run at Lingfield, he rarely races anywhere else these days and it’s a track where he has gained all but one of his eight career victories, his other win coming on a rare run on turf at Newmarket.
Despite his advancing years, Uzincso has been in good heart lately, making the frame in his last three starts, twice at Kempton and then when returning from ten weeks off to finish fourth at Lingfield last time behind Hove Ranger, rallying well inside the final furlong.
The handicapper has eased him another pound since that last run which means Uzincso is also a pound lower than for his latest success which came in this same eleven-furlong contest (20:00) a year ago when ending a long losing run under David Egan. The same jockey is on board again here, and Uzincso is top rated on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings to stage a repeat up against mainly three-year-old rivals, though none with a particularly progressive profile.
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