Racing tips: Southern Raider Maketh Believeth catches the eye at Ponte

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It was nice to land a 8/1 winner yesterday at Redcar, as Lightening Company was delivered at the perfect time by Paul Mulrennan. He was well backed late on, and the money which came was justified.

Pontefract 1:00

The fact Harry Dunlop is sending MAKETH BELIEVETH up to Pontefract from his Lambourn base suggests a big run is on the cards. Harry is 1/1 at the track in the last five years, so has to be respected with this horse. Sending him to Yorkshire with him shouldering a large weight suggests they are confident, as surely there would have been easier and closer targets for him to run at. This is an apprentice race, so the booking of George Rooke is a positive. George is an experience apprentice, and though he doesn't claim in these races (due to wins in similar races), he is still a positive in my eyes as he is one of the better apprentices on the circuit. The softish ground will be fine for him, as he seemed to handle the heavy going at Haydock on his final start of last year, and the fact he has only raced 3x on turf means he is still fairly unexposed on this surface. He'll have to prove his fitness in this, as he is coming off a 165 day absence, but like I mentioned at the start, they are travelling a fair way for this, so I'd take that as he is ready to go.

Pontefract 3:50

Based on his first start as a 2yo, KING EAGLE will need to find plenty of improvement to beat the likes of Savvy Victory and Soul Stopper, but there are reasons to believe that improvement is possible on his first start as a 3yo.

This son of Frankel has a very good pedigree, and one which suggests he will be better this year than what he was in his short juvenile season. He is a half-brother to Magical Morning who had one start as a 2yo, where he didn't run with much promise, then when he started his 3yo campaign, he turned into a totally different horse, winning on seasonal reappearance before going on to become a 100+ rated horse as a 4yo. I think a similar thing could happen with this lad, for connections who do well when sending their horses to the northern parts of the country. Michael Bell is 3/9 with his 3yo runners at this track, so it's a track which he does well at.

Though the horses in this field have shown better levels of form, it's not insurmountable for a horse like King Eagle to win this. The horses who have ratings are rated 84 & 86, and when you combine the fact they are still maidens and might need the run, I think a chance should be taken on this lad. The price isn't what I thought it would be, with it being a little shorter than expected, but the early prices of around 16/1 were soon gone, and he is currently priced up at around 5s, which is encouraging that the early money has come.

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