Heavy rain has altered the look of many of today’s races, with more than a few horses being pulled out because of changes in ground conditions. So if you’ve backed a horse earlier than today, this could work in your favour if the conditions have changed to suit them. Newbury track had an early inspection after 74mm of rain, to see if racing could take place today, the going has now changed to heavy but racing will go ahead.
There are many non-runners today, with five withdrawing from the first race alone, so there are now eight runners, with Marcus Tregoning’s Red Royalist topping the list as the bookies favourite. But as I write, it seems Red Royalist is another withdrawn contender so favourite today has to be Trick of the Light, the Roger Varian-trained horse, with odds of 4/1 with Bet365.
Second favourite will be Musawaat, with odds of 5/1 with Coral. But it may be that this tracks entries are severely depleted after so much heavy rain overnight.
Moving over to Ayr this afternoon, where the going is soft, there are plenty of races on the card and we’ll take a look at The Al Maktoum Dundee College Handicap, at 3.05 where the most napped outsider today is running, Desert Ace, this Iain Jardine trained horse is an experienced horse and is worthy of a place today at least, ridden today by Joe Fanning and weather permitting, this should be a good race for all 24 runners, over five furlongs. Odds on Desert Ace are 33/1 with Ladbrokes. Far from favourite with the bookies but who knows what could happen in this large field.
The favourite is Richard Fahey's horse, Arctic Feeling, with odds dropping from 9/1 to 6/1 within a couple of minutes, so he’s being heavily backed somewhere. Odds with Ladbrokes are 6/1 currently which still isn’t too bad for the favourite.
Slightly behind those odds at 13/2 with William Hill is Orient Class, who hopefully can build on his last four wins from five starts on this soft ground and at a course he is familiar with.
Other horses to watch out for here are Fumbo Jumbo and Hilary J.
Good Luck today.