Three Platoon ran out a very ready winner in the opener at Newcastle under Kaiya Fraser who was a passenger on the horse. Rebecca Menzies said that this horse is quirky, so Kaiya must be doing something right as he horse has cruised to the win on both of his rides.
Rizzel's Tips
Mintana 4/1 – Catterick 4.30
A lot of the horses in this race are arriving in fairly horrendous form, but that doesn't mean too much as Class 6 horses are often primed for certain races and can ‘bounce' back to form when their handicap marks have fallen drastically. Despite what I've just said, making it quite a dodgy race, I will take a chance on Mintana who comes up to Catterick from James Evans' Worcester stable, with him being one of two runners on the card for the yard who don't send many to this venue.
There is a couple of horses in decent form, noticeably the John Davies horse, Garifullina who is looking for the hat-trick. Obviously, a horse like that has to be respected as it is in good nick and doing a lot right, but I'm not convinced the level of form is that strong. The form lines of my selection are decent despite her only getting her head in front just once this season. James Evans' filly is tremendously consistent and I think we will get our money's worth even if not landing the win. She has finished in the top three on four of her six runs so far this year, with her best runs coming over today's trip, including a nose second-placed finish and a 1.25L victory.
She has been unlucky to bump into some decent horses for the grade this year and when she had a nice opportunity to get a win, she made no mistake about it. I do think she is better over today's trip and I think the soft ground could be best suited for her on the turf. She is related to some good sprinters who relished the soft conditions, and given her run on good to soft at Chepstow in June, I think it's safe to say she handles cut in the ground. Touching on that race, she pushed the winner all the way to the line and the winner has since come out and won by 4L.
The jockey booking is slightly concerning as Sam Feilden has only been used once by the trainer and normally opts for Joe Leavy, but Joe is riding elsewhere today. Sam is a decent 7lb claimer who is based with Karl Burke, so he clearly knows how to ride as a yard like Karl wouldn't be wasting their time, and he showed his worth when finishing on the Ayr Gold Cup runner-up just over a week ago.
Hierarchy 6/1 EW – Nottingham 3.45
For a midweek sprint on heavy ground, this is a cracking little race to get stuck into with nearly every horse turning up with a chance of winning.
After some thinking and changing my mind on a couple of horses, I've ended up being confident that Hierarchy is the correct horse to be on. I'm well aware of the two horses at the top of the weights as they were 2nd and 3rd in this race last year and Fantasy Master was a winner of this race a couple of years ago. Also, both of the horses arrive in great form. However, Ben Robinson surely would've made the trip to Nottingham on the top weight if connections were confident, so the fact he hasn't makes me think he can be ruled out. Fantasy Master is going to be bang there, but was he tuned up for the last race and that was his main target for the season? I think so.
Hierarchy has been falling down the weights this year, but in the last couple of races, we've seen a bit of a resurgence. His form figures prior to the last two races read 6,7,10,16,11 but he finished 3rd/10 and 2nd/9 on his two most recent runs and a repeat performance of either of those runs should see him bang there are the finish. The ground should not be an issue for him as he has proven form of soft ground from last year when winning at Goodwood off 10st off a mark of 80, which was followed up by a 3rd/11 in a Class 3 race at the same track on soft ground off a mark of 84. Today, he runs off a mark of 74 and it is nice to see the handicapper has been lenient by not touching his handicap mark from Hamilton last time around when he easily could have as according to the Racing Post he ran to a +10 of his official rating.
In December 2020 we sadly 
Thanks EW Thief – you landed me a lovely patent at decent odds yesterday. It is great to have you posting again. Thanks to everyone else too – I learn so much from your analysis.