Friday’s Racing Tips – Classic can get a well deserved win at Newmarket

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Rizzel was down to one selection for Thursday, but the one selection he did have managed to win on debut under Hollie Doyle, cementing the Archie Watson strike rate at Chepstow with his juveniles. She was drawn widest of all in Stall 1, which is never ideal for a young inexperienced horse, but Hollie managed to settle her quite quickly and when she took her to the front there was only ever one winner.

Lieber Power was outstayed by the eventual winner in his race while Racingbreaks Ryder ran a blinder from the off the pace to grab us some each-way profit.

Cairnzy's Tips

Classic 11/4 – Newmarket 6.50

Backing old selections has become a bit of a reoccurrence for me this past month or so, and sometimes it's worked and sometimes it's come back to haunt me but it's hard to ignore the chances of Richard Hannon's Classic as he looks a proper well-handicapped horse at the moment.

Trainer Richard Hannon has always held Classic in high regard and wasted no time throwing him into the deep end in the Greenham Stakes last year. Although that race proved out of his reach, it was on unfavorable soft ground and he had excuses for underperforming on that occasion. Classic performs much better on a quicker surface, as evidenced by his victory in a seven-furlong handicap at Sandown last summer. During that race, he beat home Novus from the Gary Moore yard, Novus has shown significant improvement by winning and running creditably at group and listed level.

Classic later finished in the frame in a few competitive handicaps at Newbury, his run recently over a mile at Newbury four runs back was a cracking effort despite being outstayed by the eventual winner Crack Shot who at the time had good form over the mil and ultimately stays the trip much better. My selection wasn't seen to best effect at Sandown on his following outing, the ground conditions again were not in his favor and he was also returning to the track on the back of a long layoff. Classic then returned to Sandown on his following outing ( tipped up on the thread that day as an EW 14/1 shot ), he ran a belter of a race that day, outrunning his odds off 14/1 to be beaten on the line unfortunately. In his most recent outing, Classic finished sixth at Goodwood, although the finishing position doesn't tell the whole story. Classic traveled powerfully into that contest but ran into some traffic problems, which tends to be the case at Goodwood most of the time. If given a clear passage that day he would have gone close in my opinion.

With only six runners going to post, Classic should hopefully find no trouble in running, and of a 1lb lower mark at a track he was successful over when last seen in 2022, he surely looks a solid play in this race.

Blue Force One 12/1 EW – Thirsk 6.00

A risky race to get involved in, with most of these two-year-olds having only had the one start or so but at the prices, I thought Karl Burkes's Blue Force One was worth a small each way play at 12/1.

The market seems to have this between Force and Valour and Too Sweet. I can understand why if you are solely going off their debut efforts, which is basically all we have to go form wise. Force and Valour who shades favouritism made an encouraging start on debut to finish third at Windsor and is sure to come on for the experience. The other horse of interest was the £280,000 breeze-up purchase Too Sweet, for trainer David Loughnane. That one steps up in trip to 6f from 5f and is sure to be better in time given the hefty price tag on her head.

I opted to go against both of the above and take them on with Karl Burke's Blue Force One. Karl Burke is a menace when it comes to his youngsters, and he's proven time and time again that he's one of the best in the business when it comes to training younger horses. He's had four wins and five places when sending runners to Thirsk, operating at around a 19% strike rate.

We can't tell much from Blue Force One's debut effort other than she blew the start and was never involved. If you blow the start over 5fs, it's normally game over anyway, never mind doing it on debut, so I'm happy to ignore the run for that reason. Karl has upped her in trip to 6f, which is interesting given we have never seen a true reflection of her ability over 5f, with that said we have to trust his judgment. 12/1 looks over priced in my opinion and she could be worth a few quid each way in this contest.

Rizzel's Tips

Queen Of Soldiers 2/1 – Wolverhampton 2.25

I think all horses deserve a second chance after putting in a poor performance the time before, and I am giving that chance to Queen Of Soldiers.

If Queen Of Soldiers was turning up to this race on the back of her Ascot second, she'd probably be odds on, and definitely not opening up at 100/30 odds. Unfortunately, I've missed the opening prices and she has been strong in the betting since they opened up, and will be shorter than what she currently is at the time of writing, but that's part of the tipping game.

She was very good on her debut at Ascot and that race was a decent Class 4 maiden which had some very nice fillies for the future. The winner has since finished third and fourth in her next two starts at Listed level. The fourth won her next start and ran well when upped into a Group 2, finishing middle of the pack but putting in a performance worthy of an RPR of 96. This race probably has a few decent handicappers, but nothing with form under their belt or the newcomer seems to pose a significant threat for me to not put up Queen Of Soldiers as a selection. That might seem crazy as on the bare facts she finished 10th/13 at Haydock last time out, but that doesn't tell the true story. She was evidently not 100% that day as she dwelt from the gates, but when James came round the bend she was noticeably travelling the best of any in the race and she made up ground down the outside with ease. As soon as she hit the front it was like she was running in cement, and when the win wasn't there for the taking James did the right thing and looked after her.

Roger Varian hasn't rushed her back and she's been off the track for a little over two months, so there must've been something amiss with her as if she was perfectly fine she'd have been out and racing again. With that little break, I think she has to be the one to beat based on what we saw on debut and saw up until the final furlong or so at Haydock last time out.

Adrestia 11/4 – Newbury 3.45

As you'd expect at this time of year in a Listed 2-year-old race, it's a very competitive race on face value and if you look through the form you have horses who have been tried at Class 1 level before, and then you have the progressive horses from a lower level taking their chances. I was just so impressed with Adrestia last time out at Sandown that I had to pick her for this race.

This filly appears to have heaps of potential for the future, but for the time being, she can definitely operate at this level. Not much went right for her at Sandown last time out and it went wrong from the get-go. She dwelt from the stalls and was then bumped by one of the horses from the neighbouring stalls which made life a tad more difficult for her. At Sandown, it can be a real pain if you don't get a prominent position, or if you don't get a clear run down the outside, Adrestia got none of those. She had to sit in the rear of the field and wait patiently for a gap to appear, but when it did and Callum Shepherd went for it, she was brave to go through the gap and when she had free space, the turbo kicked in and the acceleration she showed to scoot clear of Englemere (in today's race) was impressive.

She seems to hit the line very hard, so the flatter track that Newbury is compared to Sandown brings new questions to the table, but I think she is a smart filly and with 13 runners in the field in a 2-year-old race where many will be enthusiastic and want to get rolling, this could turn into a good gallop which should suit my selection in the dying stages.

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