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As it currently stands, punters will find Declaration of War trading at a competitive price of about 5/2 right now which certainly won’t be too short for his believers, but you do reckon that the savvier punters may wait to see if his price fluctuates heavily on the day - knowing full well that Al Kazeem is going to take a lot of money.
The betting odds are pretty compact with The Fugue trading as the clear second choice in this one with a tempting price of 11/4 for those who are looking to back the big story. It would be very exciting if she was able to capture this...
We have a stellar weekend of racing ahead of us at Leopardstown on Saturday as the meeting for the Irish Champion Stakes has one of the most anticipated features of the season and a stellar series of undercard races to boot. In the main fixture, we have some of the top colts from this 3yo classic season in Britain and Ireland set to contest the 1m2f distance at Leopardstown.
There is a lot to like about his running style and he has the ability to make all off the lead or to track the leaders and kick on at just the right time. He has gone off as the favourite in both of those Group 3 encounters and there is a lot of room to move forward and you do like the way that he doesn’t have to rely on other runners to set up a specific pace.
Foundry is another talented Galileo entry owned by Coolmore and he’s got some excellent breeding - by Galileo out of a Dixieland Band mare who has produced several good runners. He finished second in the...
Expect him to do a bit better going three off the freshening and looking to build on his last effort - the Group 2 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood. He finished a close second by a head to Cap O’Rushes and he was sent off as the betting favourite on the day.
He is one of only three horses who was a beaten favourite last time out and you have to respect that he is getting such prominent play in the ante post market despite the single solitary win to his credit.
Out of a German sire that not many punters are particularly familiar with, it’s going to be interesting to see how they react but you do know that John Gosden will have him in cracking form and the addition of William Buick up top is never a bad thing for these Juddmonte entries.
The St Leger is the finale to the British Triple Crown season and this year’s iteration of the race looks as though it’s shaping up to be a classic even though a Triple Crown is not actually up for grabs this time around. The ante post market reads like a real punters dream as a number of talented runners compete for the favourites position with plenty of solid price tags out there for solid contenders with lots of room to move forward here.
The St Leger is one of the trickiest races to win as it comes at a distance that many of these contenders are not 100% adept at already. With a quirky distance to navigate...
Danadana comes out of the Luca Cumani yard and deserves plenty of respect but you wonder whether punters might feel as though Gabrial is trending in the right direction and deserves the respect here.
The Juddmonte entry Pavlosk looks to be the one to beat here in a very tightly-contested race in regards to the odds. Punters will find him installed as the slim favourite with an 11/4 price tag tanglinhg over top of him at the moment. Robin Hoods Bay will also take some money here as well with three wins in his past six and looking sharp with Johnny Murtagh booked for the trip.
Winterlude is the 5/1 favourite at the time of this writing while Gospel Choir trades at a 6/1 price tag.
The second race of the day is the Group 2 Weatherbys Hamilton Insurance Lonsdale Cup, which is a direct qualifier for the gold cup race on British Champions Day. At a full 2m88y, you can expect some quality long distance runners to contest this one. There is some quality in the mix here but none of the horses have really won that many races, it must be admitted. Ahzeemah, the Godolphin entry from Saeed bin Suroor’s yard has finished second in six of his last nine races and the other three contests he has actually won.
We have a really solid line-up of races set to unfold on Friday at the York Ebor Festival as a contingent of three group level races will be run 2,3 and 4 on the day. There is some real quality on display and you can expect a few twists and turns in several ante post markets after the results come in at York.
The first race of the day is the Sky Bet Stakes, which is a tricky Class 2 Handicap set to run over a 1m4f distance. There are some very established contenders set to run in this one...
Argentine Shipper Indy Point gets his first stateside effort in the Arlington Million and the talented four-year-old chestnut colt by top South American sire Indygo Shiner looks ready for his step up to the big leagues. While it is usually preferable to favour South American shippers in the winter months, it’s clear that Indy Point has been targeted at this race for a long time and that connections have their eyes firmly-fixed on the Breeders’ Cup in November.
With the race so wide open and, with Americans betting the vast majority of the pool, you can expect Grandeur to go off at a higher price on the board that day than he is currently available at right now. With a deep field and plenty of other accomplished selections in the mix here, you can assume that there will be significant variance between the European and American pools when it comes to Jeremy Noseda’s talented contender.
