Ascot Tips: Tom Collins selects two horses worth following on Wednesday
Tom Collins
26 April 2022
Allaho is the standout performer on day two of the Punchestown Festival and he deserves to dominate the market for the featured Punchestown Gold Cup. It's hard to imagine him losing if he stays three miles, such is his quality, but I'd rather sit back and watch the excellent eight-year-old strut his stuff than play at a relatively short price.
As a huge flat racing fan, I instead turned my attention to the classy seven-race card at Ascot. There is a good chance that we might see at least one subsequent Royal winner on the card, so let's get straight to the selections.
3.35 Ascot, 2m Group 3 Sagaro Stakes
Staying supremo Stradivarius won’t be at Ascot to retain his Sagaro Stakes crown, with connections instead opting to target next month’s £175,000 Group 2 Yorkshire Cup as the eight-year-old’s starting point for his final season on the track.
As a result, just seven horses will line up for Wednesday’s featured flat race and the market has an attractive wide-open look. Princess Zoe, winner of the 2020 Prix du Cadran and runner-up in the 2021 Ascot Gold Cup, heads the betting on her return to Britain after below-par efforts in France and Saudi Arabia.
The seven-year-old mare is without doubt the class of this field, but she doesn’t have a great record earlier in the year (her career performances between January and May have produced form figures of 957940) and good to firm ground is far from ideal. Tony Mullins wouldn’t send her over if she wasn’t ready, but the lively conditions and the place of this race in the calendar is enough to put me off.
A quick surface won’t be ideal for Tashkhan, either. He shot up the grades last year courtesy of two soft ground victories at Haydock and a gallant runner-up finish in the Long Distance Cup at this track, but his sole start on good to firm saw him finish just ninth of 17 in the King George V Stakes here.
Recent Musselburgh winner Enemy has to be considered at the prices, but preference is for the Aidan O’Brien-trained Wordsworth, who needed every yard of the 1m5½f trip at Gowran Park on his return and is sure to take a huge leap forward now that he’s faced with a greater stamina test.
The four-year-old son of Galileo danced every dance last season and impressed with placed efforts in the Irish Derby and Grand Prix du Paris. But it was his finishing effort in the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot that indicated he was ready to make his mark at this level. He hit a flat spot as the pace quickened, as per usual, but recorded the fastest final sectional (12.32sec) in the field and hit the line powerfully for second. Expect him to go one better here.
4.10 Ascot, 6f Pavilion Stakes
The David Loughnane-trained Go Bears Go warrants favouritism in this Commonwealth Cup trial after a highly creditable juvenile campaign. His runner-up finishes in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint and Norfolk Stakes, along with his Railway Stakes victory, sets the form here and progression from two to three would make him hard to beat.
Saying that, I’m a sucker for potential in young horses and there wasn’t a more impressive maiden winner at Ascot last season than Ehraz, who will make his three-year-old reappearance in this sprint.
The Shadwell-owned son of Showcasing chased home the 112-rated Noble Truth on debut before scooting up over 6f at this venue. He didn’t beat much (runner-up subsequently finished second in a handicap off a mark of 80), but that doesn’t put me off. Too much is made of opposition when a horse wins by a wide margin and not the actual performance at hand.
Ehraz cruised into contention in second gear and extended in the style of a Group performer without being asked by jockey Jim Crowley inside the final two furlongs. Sectionals of 11.16s (3f-2f), 11.35s (2f-1f) and 11.76s (1f-line) certainly whet my appetite. Who knows how quickly he could have run if he was engaged in a battle.
Factored into his price is his seemingly disappointing fifth-placed finish in the Acomb, a race that has worked out remarkably well. Not only unfavoured by the race setup (leaders dominated throughout), but he also returned an unsatisfactory scope. Put a line through that effort and he remains a horse of the highest potential.
Recommended bets
Tom Collins
26 April 2022
