Timeform Horse Racing Tips at Ascot and Chester on Friday
Timeform provide a ratings choice, a big improver and Flag to note at Ascot and Chester on Friday.
The Ratings Choice
DANCING MAGIC – 1.30 Chester
DANCING MAGIC remains a maiden, but he has some very useful form to his name, highly tried as a juvenile, where he finished runner-up in a listed event and also hit the frame in the Autumn Stakes and Futurity Trophy Stakes.
He also performed with credit in pattern events last season, too, a particular highlight being his third-place finish in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket, and he caught the eye on his recent return in a mile handicap at Newbury.
That was his first start since being gelded and just his second run in a handicap and he left the impression he’d come on a fair bit for the run, travelling better than most but having to wait for a gap to appear over two furlongs out.
Dancing Magic didn’t quicken as expected once in the clear, but he should strip fitter for that outing, and he is potentially very well treated from a mark of 94. He is at least 2lb clear of his rivals on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and seems sure to launch a bold bid from stall 3.
The Big Improver
PASSENGER – 3.05 Chester
It isn’t often that a four-year-old still has the Timeform small ‘p’ attached to his rating but PASSENGER has the potential to develop into a high-class colt this season.
He made a striking impression when winning the Wood Ditton at Newmarket by three lengths last year, noisy and on his toes beforehand and overcoming inexperience to make a winning debut, and he was unlucky not to get very close to winning in the Dante Stakes at York on his next start given he conceded first run with a less-than-ideal passage.
Passenger was supplemented for the Derby afterwards but seemed to be caught out by a lack of know-how just six weeks on from his debut and he wasn’t at all given a hard time. He was given plenty of time afterwards and resumed his progress when winning a listed event at Windsor on his final start in August, not doing a great deal having seemed to have sealed the race with an impressive move to the front over a furlong out.
Sir Michael Stoute is renowned for doing so well with lightly-raced older horses and Passenger has the potential to develop into a top-level performer this season, so he is very much a horse to remain positive about.
The Timeform Flag
AMERICAN BAY – 1.50 Ascot
Flags: Horse In Focus, Top Rated
AMERICAN BAY showed fairly useful form in four starts last season, his best effort coming when finishing a neck second to a promising John & Thady Gosden horse in a minor event at Kempton in October, and he shaped much better than the bare result on his return and handicap debut at Newbury three weeks ago.
He travelled notably well on that occasion, but didn’t get a clear run through, short of room more than once but running on well to the line once in the clear. American Bay is clearly on a good mark and is well up to winning a race of this nature, very much the type who could rack up a sequence in the coming weeks.
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