Racing tips: Chola Empire will appreciate any rain that falls at Newmarket

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Unfortunately I didn't manage to watch the races at the times they were run at but I have since watched the replays back, and I thought both horses ran respectable races.

It was a shame that Berneuil couldn't make use of the rail draw in stall 1 to get the lead. I mentioned how getting the lead in the sprint races in France is such a big advantage and that proved to be right as the leader of that race went on to win, Berneuil did well to finish second.

Lady Onyx ran a strange race, at points when Ben Curtis was getting after her I thought she was going to go backwards, but she battled on well, and then at certain points, I thought she might've won, but she got outstayed in my opinion. There are races to win with her, and I imagine she'll be a big player if they decide to drop her back to 6f in a fastly run handicap at the Curragh or somewhere similar, rather than stay at 7f.

Newmarket 4:20 – Chola Empire 5/1 (1pt)

The talking horse in this race is Urban Sprawl after finishing 3rd at Royal Ascot in the Britannia handicap, the price reflects his recent good performance, but just because he ran well last week doesn't mean he's going to follow that up in a totally different race off a 7-day break.

There are horses in this race gliding down the handicap, and though they are inviting to back, sometimes it's better going for the unexposed horses who are still to prove a few things and that's what I've gone for with Chola Empire. Saying this horse is unexposed might seem weird as he is a 4yo with 13 runs under his belt and rated 78, but he has only run 4 times on turf, and though that hasn't yielded a win, he's run well enough to suggest he has a career on the turf and isn't an AW merchant.

I think that his two recent runs in Class 2 and 3 handicaps were eye-catching, to say the least. He probably needed the run on turf seasonal reappearance at Newmarket, but also I think he'd have liked a stronger gallop as he was powering on out of the dip. The form of that race was boosted by Witch Hunter who went on to win at Royal Ascot and I think a couple of others in that race are still on good marks, including the favourite even though he didn't quite shine at Royal Ascot. His run at Goodwood last time out was a good effort, he travelled nicely, looked a bit unbalanced when Spencer brought him out to challenge, but then took a while to hit top stride, but he did manage to run on strongly again and finish fourth, 1.75L behind the winner. That was on the quickest ground he has encountered, and though I'd say he handled it, I think today's ground, which should hopefully see a bit of rain, should be much better for him. He is by Territories, who was a good horse on the slower ground and has produced some nice horses who enjoy cut in the ground, so I'm hoping that the rain which is expected to fall at 3 am will land on the already watered track and make it at least good to soft, or good with a bit of juice come the time of racing.

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