Our racing pundit Tony McCormick from.irishbigracetrends.com has recently been signed up by geegeez.co.uk, the world’s largest independent horse racing website, to share his daily, each-way Double-Dutch selections.
Our trainers to follow in May, highlighted in last week’s column, got off to a fine start on the first day of the month, by landing a 31/1 treble for Racing Ahead readers.
Ralph Beckett’s Short Work won at Salisbury, beating eight rivals at 9/2, finishing a neck ahead of Andrew Balding’s Dark Shot, who will be worth keeping an eye on next time out.
Sir Michael Stoute saddled the three-year-old Mainstream, readily took a Salisbury handicap at 9/4f under jockey Stevie Donohue. It is worth noting the trainer/jockey combination. Since returning to work for Stoute, Donohue had eight winners and placed a further five times in 2015, while the pairs record this season already reads 2221 with prices of 10/1, 12/1, 100/30 and 9/4.
The third leg of the treble was landed as Aiden O’Brien had his regular Sligo winner in the shape of Sword Fighter, who took the closing Maiden on May Day, beating his four rivals by a mammoth 14-lengths as the 4/5 favourite.
Currently on the Racing Post website is a very nice E-Book that is available to download for free. 100 Winners To Follow is put together by the guys at Raceform, the finest racing publishers out there. Here is a selection of tasters from the book.
APPLETON: Off the mark at the first attempt, taking a five-furlong maiden at Pontefract in August, going away at the line. On his only subsequent start he finished a creditable ninth of 22 behind his stablemate Mr Lupton in a very valuable sales race at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting in September, where he was not done any favours by the draw.
ARCHITECTURE. Hugo Palmer enjoyed a memorable 2015 and this filly could well play her part in a lucrative 2016 for the stable.
Having shown distinct promise on her debut when third of 10 in a 1m soft-ground maiden at Haydock in September, Architecture stepped forward from that to defeat 16 rivals over a similar trip on easy ground at Nottingham the following month. Her pedigree suggests that a mile is likely to remain her optimum trip and it will be a surprise if she can’t make her mark in decent company this season, especially when there is a bit of cut in the ground.
IMPASSABLE. Out of a Group 3-winning juvenile, this filly developed really well as a 3yo last season, taking her maiden in March and progressing to win the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham at the end of May. Given a summer break, she returned to win the Prix Daniel Wildenstein at the Arc meeting in comfortable fashion, despite the narrow winning margin.
LUGANO. Sent off at 20-1, 50-1 and 66-1 on his three starts of 2015, Lugano got no closer than about 11 lengths to a winner on any occasion, suggesting his ability is limited but the handicapper has allotted him a starting mark of 60 despite those unpromising form figures. The thing that makes him so interesting is his breeding, as his dam Swiss Lake’s offspring have all won at least one race.
