Punter's Diary by Malcolm Heyhoe

[current diary]

Updated: 29th July 2009 - GG.com

August's Airs And Graces

The culmination of five days of top class action on the Sussex Downs reaches its climax with the Stewards’ Cup at Glorious Goodwood on August 1. One of the calendar’s most fiercely-contested sprint handicaps is sure to involve its fair share of thrills and punters trying to pull the needle from the haystack should concentrate upon finding the horses that had run well in Royal Ascot’s Wokingham Stakes, an approach that brings Markab and Asset into the picture while Mac Gillie Eon figures menacingly too.

On the same day the fillies take their turn to shine in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes where Henry Cecil’s Midday might well step down in trip for this valuable mile and a quarter contest that also features smart older horse Dar Re Mi. Elsewhere Michael Bell’s Moneycantbuylove, a winner at Royal Ascot, has missed several races in order to run here and a bold show is expected.

The end of Goodwood’s week of panamas, strawberries and cream brings a break in the racing action that is only tempered by the Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury on August 15 on a card that also sees the Hungerford Stakes occupy centre stage and any horse that John Gosden sends for this seven-furlong contest should be considered carefully. On the following day at Deauville the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois is sure to be a competitive event.

Sea The Stars
© racing-images.co.uk

York’s wonderful Ebor meeting in 2008 was washed away in few claps of thunder and a torrent of sudden downfalls which left the hapless clerk of course William Darby looking like a bedraggled and modern-day King Canute railing against the rains. With a brand new drainage system in place there should be no repeat of last summer’s debacle and racing should begin with Sea The Stars gracing the stage in the Group1 Juddmonte International on August 18.

Providing a sound surface prevails the John Oxx-trained Guineas, Derby and Eclipse hero will be odds-on to secure the Juddmonte while on the same day Sir Michael Stoute’s exciting Harbinger could be the one to follow in the Great Voltigeur Stakes, one of the season’s most telling trials for the St Leger and a competitive contest that seems sure to exert an influence upon the final classic of the campaign.

The Totesport Ebor on August 19 is often a race that falls to a steadily improving horse and Clive Cox’s Electrolyser fits this mould while the same can also be said of Aidan O’Brien’s Changingtheguard. On August 19 Sariska puts her awesome credentials to the test when she faces the older members of her fairer sex for the first time in the Yorkshire Oaks and she shouldn’t be found wanting. A winner at York already in May’s Musidora Stakes, she will be hard to beat.

Fleeting Spirit
© racing-images.co.uk

York’s final day on August 21 features the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and as long as Fleeting Spirit is over the intermittent lameness that troubled her in the wake of her stunning success in the July Cup, she will difficult to outspeed. At the top of her game right now, she has most to fear from Ialysos and Borderlescott. In the Melrose Stakes on the same day watch out for the deeply progressive King Of Wands.

The curtain falls on August’s month of action with the Celebration Mile at Goodwood on a card that also features the Prestige and March Stakes where the two-year-olds and stayers respectively are given the chance to channel their energies on the rolling turf of the Sussex racecourse. In the Celebration Mile the Willie Haggas-trained Aqlaam might well be the one to land the spoils if connections decide to drop him class for this Group 2 prize.

Malcolm Heyhoe writes weekly horse racing articles for GG.COM-Horse racing betting, information, news, results and free daily tips

Archive July 2009