RED JOAN and LULLABY BAY are my two selections to kick off Newmarket.
I’ll start with James Doyle’s mount RED JOAN.
His first run came in these conditions, and he scored a good speed rating despite dwelling the start. He then took a keen hold towards the rear and kept on from 1f out without making an impression. Whilst that doesn’t sound very appetizing, he scored the joint 2nd best speed rating that day, 1 less than the top rated PRINCESS SHABNAM who got away cleanly that day and offered no extra towards the finish.
We are taking a step up in grade today but breeding suggests that will be okay. I’m hoping this horse will perform better with better horses around him, and as mentioned his breeding suggests that is likely to happen.
An angle to go off here too is James Doyle rode PRINCESS SHABNAM lto, yet switches to our selection today, pushing Martin Harley off who ran on debut. Martin is now onboard the longest shot in the field.
With a solid run on his debut, it looks like there is more to come from this horse. The jockey mount suggests something, and providing he gets a clean getaway this time and is rode more prominently he stands every chance.
Our next selection in this race is debutant LULLABY BAY.
K Burke enters two here, and despite being similar odds he has put his trusted jockey Clifford Lee on board our selection, who has rode 278 times for K Burke in the past year.
The breeding on this horse suggests he’ll like the distance. Connections to a 7f winner, meaning he’s likely to handle the stiff finish over 6f, and also a half sister to a 6f 2yo listed winner.
The trainer does well with 2yo’s at this class and course in non-handicaps, winning 2 from 8 with 1 placed horse. This includes a 20/1 winner ridden by today’s jockey, which was his only ride here. Interesting.
A nice draw in stall 3 and I’d like him to be up with the pace. It’s always a good thing over 6f here to be prominent but nothing to go by when tipping debutants. Clifford Lee has a good course record here in the past 5 years winning 18.52% of races, so he should know his way around the course.
Nothing else showed enough value to me for the rest of the meet. Despite hours and hours of researching I will not force tips for the sake of it!👍🏼
