For the third day in a row, there has been good money on a selection, but we've walked away without the win.
Salamanca City was backed in from 10/1 into 10/3. She was positioned nicely in second spot, but the winner was given a good ride from the front. Rab Havlin set the perfect fractions, and at Haydock, it is hard to peg back front-runners. She is a consistent filly and continues to run well in defeat.
Galilean Quality lacked the quality on debut to get involved. Clifford Lee held his mount up at the rear of the field, and the son of Teofilo was far too green. He looked clueless and will come on for the run. He didn't want to run straight and looked like an awkward ride for Clifford. The drift in the market told.
Talis Evolvere 22/1 (0.5pt EW, 5pl) – Ascot 4.40
This is the only race at Ascot that I thought I could find a horse to have a bet on. For the most part, the Ascot card on Friday is awful and full of pointless races. However, this handicap is a great race, and with the ground being as soft as it is, it makes it an interesting betting perspective.
A lot of horses in this race will be able to handle the ground, and they are definitely the ones who will be prominent in the market. The horse I wanted to take a chance on was Talis Evolvere, who isn't proven on soft or heavy ground, if it deteriorates that much. His pedigree leaves the impression that he should be able to handle it. Talis Evolvere is by the sire Awtaad, who has produced the soft ground lovers like Anmaat, who is a multiple Group 1 winner.
Talis Evolvere is probably better on the artificial surfaces than the turf, as his record would suggest, but he is more than capable of winning races like this on a good day. He has put in some good performances in the highly competitive handicaps at this track this year. He was 11th/30 at Royal Ascot, then was 5th/17 at the big Ascot meeting afterwards. In between and after that race, he has run well to finish in the places at York in big field handicaps. The handicapper has slowly dropped his handicap mark, and he now sits on a very tempting mark of 89. He has won off 95, 94 (had 5lb claimer on board), and 89 before, so he has been given every chance by the handicapper. To make his chances even better, he is ridden by a 7lb claimer, which puts his handicap mark on 82. If he does handle the conditions, he must be going close, as long as he is on the right side of the track, as they will likely split.
This horse's best form on the turf came on good to soft over a mile off a handicap mark of 99, which was effectively 94 due to the 5lb claimer. That run produced an RPR of 105, so that goes to show he does handle a bit of juice, and that was the only time he was on ground softer than good. Not only that, it shows how well handicapped he is on today's mark.
GambleAware