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The St. Leger is the biggest race of Doncaster’s flagship meeting, though this year, it’s not that easy to get excited about that race, with a relatively underwhelming field of seven runners going to post. I’m more interested in the handicap that follows the feature event at the Yorkshire venue.
| Fontwell - 14:30 |
Honneur D'ajonc |
11/2 |
Ahead of the 16:15 contest, a Class 2 handicap over a mile and two furlongs, Paradias ticks a few more boxes than early odds of 8/1 may have us believe.
The gelding failed to get involved over a slightly longer trip at York last time out, but I wouldn’t be too discouraged by that effort. The fast ground wasn’t exactly in his favour. Today, he has his conditions.
No shortage of handicap form to his name
Alan King’s runner has performed with credit in several of these races, winning a Class 3 handicap at Goodwood on his penultimate start, while his effort when finishing second (of 13) at Epsom (Class 2) back in late May tells me that he’s more than capable of getting seriously involved here.
If we look at the form of that Epsom contest, we can see that he went very close in what was a hotter race than this, certainly in terms of strength in depth. His two runs at Sandown and Goodwood over this trip last season also stand out as positive form in relation to this race.
We can’t ignore the fact that Alan King is a trainer who has hit some form of late, winning with 33.33% of his runners in the last fortnight, while his Doncaster record is not to be sneezed at either, winning with six (and placing with 10) of his last 34 runners at the venue.
Based on what we’ve seen from him, and several of the others in here, I’d say that a race of this nature, on his ideal ground, with the predicted pace expected to suit too, is well within his reach from a mark of 97.
Ultimately, Alan King’s runner has enough in favour here to make odds of 8/1 stand out as worth taking.
Based on a £10 level-stakes example, the Nap of the Day running profit is -£40 (since switching to being published here rather than on the ‘Nap of the Day' page).
