More than £1m worth of horse racing talent set to shine in one race
Newbury Racecourse hosts its Summer August Raceday on Friday with a six-race card and one race will showcase more than £1m of racing talent.
The class four maiden stakes at 3.15pm on Friday is the race in question, with 11 runners set to tackle the trip and, on paper, it looks like one of the deeper maiden races of the Flat racing season.
The first contest on the card is at 2.05 with a six furlong Nursery contest in class four for the two-year-olds.
Preference here heads to Miss El Fundi for trainer Sir Mark Prescott, a decisive winner at Kempton last month and makes a handicap debut here.
Rare Change for trainer Richard Hughes is one to note too, a good third of 16 at Goodwood last time out and has the booking of superstar jockey Ryan Moore to add to their chances at Newbury.
Race two (2.40) sees a field of 14 take on the class four fillies’ novice stakes over six furlongs.
The Andrew Balding-trained Musical Angel showed plenty in defeat in an Ascot novice and is open to improvement for the powerful Cheveley Park stable, so is taken to get off the mark ahead of Toomuchforme, a comfortable winner at Ripon 11 days ago to defy a poor debut 11 weeks previously.
Race three (3.15) is the one plenty of observers will be keeping an eye on as 11 runners tackle the maiden stakes in class four, which has a £6,480 prize for first place - but that is not why many will be watching.
King’s Charter fetched an enormous €650,000 as a yearling and showed plenty of promise when third in a Sandown novice 16 days ago and improvement is expected for the Godolphin powerhouse.
Super trainer Aidan O’Brien and Team Ballydoyle send newcomer Isambard Brunel over from Ireland, a colt out of superstar sire Justify who holds a number of big-race entries further down the track and has number one jockey Moore on board.
Elsewhere in this race, trainers John and Thady Gosden send 250,000 Guineas foal purchase and a colt out of perhaps the best racehorse of all time, Frankel, to Newbury for in Pantile Warrior, while the Balding team also hold a strong hand in Windlord, an improving colt out of another prolific sire in Dubawi.
Safe to say, it is hard to find the winner here but slight preference heads to the Charlie Appleby-trained King’s Charter, who can confirm his debut potential.
Race four on the Newbury card (3.45) is a 14-runner Listed contest so the quality of racing certainly doesn’t slow down, with a top prize of £25,520 up for grabs.
Adrestia and Englemere re-oppose here after the former got the better of the latter at Sandown last time and is taken to confirm that promise as both runners step up into Listed company.
French raider Lady Of Andros rates as the main danger to both here for trainer Andre Fabre, who has booked Moore to ride and is already a winner of a Listed race in France at Deauville just under a fortnight ago.
Lord Rapscallion looks the one to beat in the penultimate race of the afternoon (4.20) off the back of a third at Newmarket last time out, while in the finale (4.55), Eagle Eyed Tom can get off the mark for trainer David Loughnane having made a promising start to life with his new yard when third at Nottingham on his last spin.
Discover more on the big race, as well as a full preview of Newbury’s card on Friday courtesy of OLBG.
