This could be another significant day in the jockeys’ title race, with Jim Crowley and Silvestre De Sousa riding against each other in four out of the five Epsom races open to professionals. I’d give Crowley the edge today, though he’ll miss out on what would have been a good chance in the second race, in which his intended mount, Sirajiah, is now a non-runner.
Crowley has made a remarkable charge to the top of the table in recent weeks, De Sousa having previously seemed well on his way to a second title. Both are admirable jockeys and it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep it close over the next month or so.
But the pros will have to share the limelight today, as the Amateur Derby is a feature on the card. Patrick Mullins seeks his third success in this race in four years and gets to ride the favourite, Ickymasho. There’s not much wrong with this filly, although she has rather been gifted the run of the race for her most recent successes.
At 4-1, I’ll go instead with Eton Rambler (4.20), the mount of Simon Walker, whose recent record at Epsom is not so great but he did manage to ride the winner of this seven years ago. The horse has a win, two seconds and a ‘badly hampered’ from four previous visits to this specialist track and is only 1lb higher than his most recent winning mark, from September. Eton Rambler has been well held in recent starts but those were much stronger races and it’s interesting that George Baker’s stable has hit form recently.
All you jumps fans will, naturally, be focused on Cartmel, where Dauphine Ereine is a fascinating newcomer for David Pipe. Three times a winner over fences in France, this four-year-old filly is the only known sibling of Dynaste, who did so well for Pipe and ended up with a handicap mark more than two stone higher than the one Dauphine Ereine has now. She’s taking on some exposed-looking types, so this is a good opportunity but a mark of 130 is hardly a gimme for her British debut and I note she’s drifting in the market to 9-4 from an opening 6-5. It’s a race to watch.
But I see each-way appeal in Keyman (4.15) at 10-1 in the closing handicap at Chepstow. This three-year-old was given a basement rating after three poor efforts in maiden races but stayed on well into third place on his handicap debut last month. He’s a couple of pounds lower this time, having carried overweight that day, and Luke Morris is a rather stronger jockey than Mitch Godwin. The step up to a mile and a half should make a difference to this gelding, who has a half-brother that won three Listed races in Italy at middle-distances.
Finally, I shall simply note that his trainer, Jeremy Gask, has a 1% strike-rate in maiden races (2/154) against 9% in handicaps (76/805), one of the more dramatic differences that I’ve seen in a trainer’s record.
Tipping competition – a new week starts on Tuesday. As this is a Bank Holiday, the start of our new week’s tipping competition will be held over until tomorrow.
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