*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change
Friday 14:35 Epsom – Totally Charming
This extended one mile handicap has the shape of a race which will be run at a really good lick and although many of the 16 runners have yet to chance their arms around this idiosyncratic track, many of them have run around Lingfield Park which has the greatest alliance in shape and undulations to Epsom Downs.
My opening salvo was to look closely at the claims of Fantastic Fox who had a nice pipe-opener behind another of today’s rivals, Excel Power at Haydock Park following a slow start. I fancy that he will reverse that form with the top weight, but could still find the selection too hot to handle.
Totally Charming has done most of his running in a seven race career on the all-weather, but his two starts at Lingfield Park equate well to this race and he has the huge positive factor of being able to stay a bit further than this one mile trip and William Buick will almost be forced to go forward as a presser off a hot pace from the inside stall.
A beautifully balanced individual it wouldn’t surprise me to see him stick to the inside and although he could to a certain extent be a hostage to fortune, that may well be a chance worth taking from his draw.
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Saturday 14:35 Epsom – Technique
I thought this looked the most difficult race of the day, even over the complex puzzle of the Cazoo Derby, but that in turn meant that it possibly provides us with some outstanding value as well. With £100,000 up for grabs I was surprised to see just the 10 runners set to go to post.
With the probability that the Conqueror Stakes second, Bashkirova, will go off favourite for the red-hot William Haggas team, on official figures she has little or nothing in hand over four of her rivals and Martin Meade’s charge TECHNIQUE may well have been underestimated in the market place.
This daughter of Mastercraftsman has long been held in high esteem by her shrewd trainer and was initially thought to be a solid middle distance horse of some potential so much so that she ran in the Epsom Oaks here last season. Eventually beaten 26 lengths by Snowfall, when seventh of the 14 runners, that performance was so much better than the end result suggests in that as she made eye-catching headway from the three pole to a furlong and a half out before her stamina gave in.
She was subsequently beaten a shade over four lengths by Lady Bowthorpe in the Nassau Stakes and was desperately unlucky not to pick up a Listed contest at Salisbury when she saw way too much daylight.
I marked her down as a four-year-old to follow and her seasonal debut hasn’t put me off that view. Running in the Nottinghamshire Oaks, she was just pipped by Noon Star who got first run on my selection and would probably have been hauled back in another 25 yards or so. I fancy the key to her chance though is the drop in trip. Any rain wouldn’t inconvenience her either, but with her strong travelling style that is well suited to the demands of this race on a track which she is proven, she looks a play in this valuable contest.
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Saturday 15:45 Epsom – STONE OF DESTINY
The Epsom ‘Dash’ is always one of the great sights of racing with a huge field hurtling down the fastest 5f in the world. Last year’s winner, Mokaatil has returned in good form, including a further course and distance win and has to be included in calculations, but I much prefer last year’s third, STONE OF DESTINY, who has been aimed at the race ever since.
Andrew Balding’s charge is fully 15lbs better off with the 2021 hero for a three quarters of a length beating. The seven-year-old has shaped really encouragingly on his two outings this season, first at Newmarket when travelling almost too well before lack of condition told inside he distance, then at Goodwood the slack pace counted hugely against him.
That factor definitely won’t come into play now as they are bound to go hell-for-leather on this downland track. Of course he will need plenty of luck finding daylight in the closing stages from stall 18, but he has one of the hugely in-form jockeys on his back in David Probert. Last year’s Mokaatil along with the underrated Haliphon, could be the biggest dangers to my charge.
Saturday 17.15 Epsom – SOLENT GETAWAY
I was massively surprised to see Hugo Palmer’s charge SOLENT GETAWAY entered in the Chester Cup, not because he wouldn’t act on the track or because he was poorly treated, but I was wholly convinced that the four-year-old wouldn’t see out the extended 2m 2f even off a likely moderate pace which is often inflicted on the entry for that historic contest. His main assets are his high cruising speed and ability to quicken off a strong pace and that is exactly what he will get here.
Winner of the mile and a quarter, three-year-old handicap at this meeting last year off a mark of 78 he has since won at Chester off 80 and run a cracking second in the Great Metropolitan Handicap here in April when rated 90. Following his strong pulling effort when down the field in the Chester Cup, he again races off 90, but with useful 5lbs claimer Harry Davies taking over from Ben Curtis.
Drawn to be prominent on the inside, he still has a few lbs up his sleeve and may well be able to get the better of Farhan (beaten favourite at Hamilton last time out, but surely better than that) and the game and genuine Johnston runner, Soapy Stevens.
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*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change
Paul Jacobs horse racing tips
Friday 14:35 Epsom – Totally Charming
Saturday 14:35 Epsom – Technique
Saturday 15:45 Epsom – Stone of Destiny
Saturday 17.15 Epsom – Solent Getaway
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