Peter Niven hopes Clever Cookies love of York will help him beat off the competition today in the Betway Yorkshire Cup at 4.05. Wearing cheekpieces for the first time today, he goes into the race as an outsider, from a field of six runners.
Bondi Beach has been pulled out today, he was joint favourite with Flying Officer, but instead he will be racing at Navan on Sunday in The Codmore Vintage Crop Stakes.
Flying Officer’s last outing bought him third place and he’s looking promising for his future racing. John Gosden trained and he has no penalty today and with Dettori in the saddle and ground to favour him he could be the one to back. In saying that the last time he raced against Clever Cookie, he came out on top by over a quarter of a length and he carries local hopes to boost him on, having done well there before.
Don’t rule out Second Step who is back to fitness now, he’s second favourite today, trained by Luca Cumani who is fully aware of the rivalry between Flying Officer and Clever Cookie, that said he feels he’s ready to take them on.
Peter Niven will take a look at the course before the race and may still pull Clever Cookie out if the ground doesn’t suit him, stating he wants to look after him, but the ground staff did water the track overnight to keep the conditions good to firm.
Odds are as follows, Flying Officer: 13/8 with Paddy Power, Second Step: 5/2 with William Hill and Clever Cookie is 5/1 with Ladbrokes.
Other horses to watch from this small field are Curbyourenthusiasm and Glaring, both these horses are being backed heavily this morning with odds dropping, so watch this space.
Other racing today is at Aintree, Dundalk, Hamilton, Newmarket, Newbury and Kilbeggan.
Keep an eye out later for an update on this weekend’s racing particularly tomorrow where the big race of the day is Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury running at 3.55pm. Limato has been declared to run and the field is wide open. There’s also plenty more racing to watch this weekend.
Good luck.