QUEEN’S CUP HANDICAP
Saturday 29th March, 3:35pm
Chillingham @ 9/2
Sweet Fantasy @ 9/2
Berkshire Rocco @ 13/2
Struth @ 7/1
view odds
*prices correct at time of writing.
RACE
Easter Saturday offers something for everyone from Musselburgh to Meydan, via Haydock and Cork, with Musselburgh’s £100,000 Queen’s Cup (3-35) Race of the Day at home. Jockey Danny Tudhope is on a hatrick in the mile and a three-quarter handicap that’s being staged in conditions that are as soft as they get at the coastal track, but that’ll suit his veteran mount Metier.
MARKET
The association between trainer Ed Bethell and jockey Callum Rodriguez in 2023 – 31 winners together at a 23% strike rate – proved a very solid betting ‘system’ on flat racing’s northern circuit, and they’ve continued the good form together so far this year. Their runner Chillingham, which will revel in the ground, hasn’t run since November but won first time out after a longer break last season.
Although Sweet Fantasy has been absent from the flat for even longer, he’s won both starts over hurdles this year, both times on soft, and could be well-handicapped. Despite enjoying mixed fortunes since finishing runner-up in the 2020 St Leger, a close fifth-place in the Ebor puts Berkshire Rocco bang in the mix.
Charlie Johnston is due to run four, all fancied, though this distance and the rain-drenched ground actually make the nicely-weighted Capital Theory, theoretically the outsider of the quartet, potentially the most interesting. These days, the eight-year-old Metier’s metier is on soft ground on the flat, at a high level, as evidenced by an honourable runners-up spot in this last year (Emiyn fifth) before going on to an excellent Chester Cup success; a hurdles run should have acted as a pipe-opener.
Front-running Emiyn was well-backed a year ago today, and is another happy on the going. Faylaq hasn’t won since his William Haggas days but ran with credit over shorter at Newcastle.
CORNELIUS’ QUARTET
Ahead of Dubai World Cup day at Meydan I smiled at reading the thought somewhere that, such is their recent success, the Dubaians’ view of the Japanese must be not dissimilar to that of British jumping towards Ireland (though I’m not sure they go on about it quite so much), and the locals have been battening down the hatches again, not least for the wonderful filly Liberty View in a star-studded Longines Sheema Classic (4-00).
Sunday’s veterans’ race at Ascot continued jump racing’s love affair with the antics of the sport’s senior participants, and in the latest edition at Haydock (3-15) in-form Thor De Cerisy – from a stable going great guns – is getting his jumping fully together and races off a competitive weight level.
Earlier, Playful Saint (2-05) should be able to build on a fine effort, after eleven months off, against re-opposing Milldam and thereby contribute to keeping the Skelton bandwagon rolling.
At Cork (3-30), I’m sure mine wasn’t the only tracker into which the lightly-raced, Donnacha O’Brien-trained Yosemite Valley went last autumn, and this Listed race looks a quality opportunity.
THE WINNER
A smashing race and a very marginal preference for Metier – what about you?
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