Racing Tips – Back Francophone at Goodwood

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Yesterday was a great result, I needed that badly after six days of complete dross. Fair Wind won at drifted odds of 13/2 while Electric Storm was tipped up last night at 15/2 and was backed into 9/4 throughout the day. If you took the double and got the best odds it paid roughly 67/1 as a double. My other selection Juana Ines was eased off and never involved.

Another busy Saturday awaits punters in the racing world and hopefully, we can land another winner from somewhere!

Haydock 1:50 – Flora Of Bermuda 18/1 E/W

My selection for the Betfred Temple Stakes will surprise most of you. I have gone for one of the outsiders of the field in Flora Of Bermuda.

On official ratings, my 3-year-old filly selection has it all to do, but with the recent poor weather turning the Haydock ground into soft, heavy in places, I believe that gives an outsider’s chance to the Andrew Balding horse. This filly has done her best runs on a slow surface. She was 2nd to Big Evs at Doncaster in a Group 2 last year. The winner has since won a couple of Group 1’s, including the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile Sprint. He also made an easy winning return at York last week, so has evidently trained on, and that looks like a strong piece of form.

Flora of Bermuda tends to have slow starts and that isn’t ideal for a 5f sprint, and that has often been her biggest downfall. She broke slowly on her final start of her two-year-old campaign, was rushed up on the outside, and was going well until being sandwiched. Her run on soft ground at Goodwood last August shows how much she prefers the slower ground, and I think if it continues to rain, she will be a lively EW player.

Goodwood 2:05 – Francophone 2/1

At this time of year, you do often get some very weak Class 1 Listed fillies races as owners are desperate to get the black-type for breeding purposes, which normally sees fillies who are rated much lower than normally needed to win a race of this nature, turn up. I am not going for the top-rated horse in the race, but Francophone is the second-highest in the field.

I do believe this is a very poor race and only a couple should be in with a chance of winning this, I have it between the two at the head of the market and ratings, but I think the Johnston horse will have a bit too much for the Gosden filly. I’ve opted for Francophone as her run in the Musidora Stakes at York a week or so ago looks to be the best recent form on offer and shows that she has trained on. Not only has she proven that she has trained on, but she stays this trip, which is a question for many of these in this field.

Goodwood 3:45 – Royal Power 7/2

The other Listed race at Goodwood is for the 3yo colts and geldings. Meydaan will likely be a strong fancied favourite given the experience and form he has shown so far, but I think he is vulnerable to an improver and the one I’ve decided to side with is Royal Power.

Meydaan has raced three times for Simon & Ed Crisford, and has shown a decent level of form, but it isn’t out of this world and hasn’t exactly been improving as well as a lightly raced young horse should be, recording RPRs of 91, 91 and 98, with his most recent run looking well below average, with the winner doing it easily and the others in the race not looking like Derby contenders. As a result, I wanted to take him on, and I went for the Godolphin horse to cause the upset.

Royal Power has only had two starts to date, and this is his first start of the season, so he’ll need to prove his fitness. However, if he is ready to fire first time out, then he could easily have improved over the winter to fulfill his very impressive pedigree. He is by Frankel and out of a Dubawi Mare who was a Class 1 level performer. He has shown ability on his two starts at Kempton at the back end of 2023. On debut, he was green and was very clueless, which saw him lose many lengths when the race was starting to heat up, but he stayed on very powerfully in the final furlong in that 7f race. On his next start, he showed battling qualities as he was pressured by the runner-up, but he kept going and was a beneficiary of the step up to a mile. With an extra 3f today, his running style and pedigree would suggest this is going to be ideal for him, so he is worth a shot.

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