Today’s free selection Horse: Dee's Mochafella Race: 13:55 Ripon Card no.: 1 Trainer: Fionn Mcsharry Morning price: 67.00 |
Ripon's Listed Two-Year-Old Trophy Heads a Seven-Track Bank HolidayThe late summer bank holiday delivers the usual sprawl — seven meetings, three codes of ground condition, and a first race at 13:32 at Southwell — but only one Class 1 contest. Ripon's British Stallion Studs EBF Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy Stakes at 15:05 is worth £30,811 and is comfortably the most valuable race in these islands today. Eight go to post over six furlongs. RiponThe Champion Two Years Old Trophy has long been a useful signpost. It is a Listed six furlongs for juveniles at the very end of August, run on a broad, galloping left-handed circuit with a run-in that asks rather more of a horse than the flat, sharp tracks where most two-year-old speed is exposed over the summer. That combination tends to sort out the precocious from the progressive: the type who wins here is usually one already stretching beyond pure early speed, and the race asks whether a maiden or novice winner can carry that form into black type off level weights. Two variables matter today. The first is the draw. Ripon's six-furlong course has been showing a bias towards the higher numbers, which pushes the emphasis onto where the field settles and which side the pace materialises. In an eight-runner Listed race there is rarely much cover, and a horse drawn low that fails to cross may find itself racing alone on the wrong flank for two furlongs before it gets the chance to do anything about it. The second is the ground. Our card records Good at Ripon and that is what we are working from, but conditions have been reported as changing through the day, with light rain around and showers or thunder in the afternoon forecast. Any material easing shifts the complexion of a juvenile sprint entirely: unraced-in-the-mud speed types get found out, and the stronger-galloping sorts with a bit of size about them come into it. Trainers with two entries and a choice of ground will have been watching the sky. Ripon's supporting race is the Ripon Rowels Handicap at 15:40, a Class 2 over a mile with nine declared and £15,462 on offer. Nine runners over Ripon's mile is a race that can be won from the front if nobody wants to take it on, and the field size is small enough that a rider prepared to be positive from an inside berth can dictate. Handicaps of this quality at northern tracks in late season are frequently won by well-treated three-year-olds with light campaigns, and that is the profile worth identifying on the racecard. Chepstow, Epsom and the restThe LSL Racing Chepstow Mile Series Final Handicap at 16:35 is the day's other genuine betting heat: 17 runners, £20,616, and a mile and 14 yards on ground given as Good to Soft. Chepstow's straight mile is undulating and stiff, and on easing ground it is a searching test rather than a sprint-and-coast. With that many runners on a wide track, the risk is the field splitting into two groups and the race being decided by which side happens to get the stronger tempo. Hold-up horses need luck; horses that stay the trip on cut come into their own in the final furlong, where Chepstow's climb regularly reels in those who have gone too hard. Epsom is Good to Soft for a seven-race card including a £20,000 handicap for the 66-85 band. Cartmel, also Good to Soft, has six over jumps, and Southwell's Tapeta is Standard. In Ireland, Downpatrick races on Good in the afternoon and Roscommon takes the evening, its Irish EBF Median Sires Series Conditions Race at 16:50 the pick with nine runners over seven furlongs and 94 yards for €15,000. Our selectionOur systems have gone in the opening race at Ripon, the 13:55 EBF Restricted Maiden Stakes over six furlongs: Dee's Mochafella, trained by Fionn McSharry and ridden by Daniel Tudhope, priced at 67 this morning with two systems matched. It is a restricted maiden, which by design narrows the field and gives smaller operations a workable target, and the Tudhope booking is the detail worth registering on a horse at that price. The same draw and ground caveats that apply to the Listed race two hours later apply here. Today’s free selectionToday's free selection is Dee's Mochafella (Fionn Mcsharry), number 1 in the 13:55 at Ripon. Qualified on 2 of your saved systems (Unreal LAY system, 2025 Only Turf). The race is the Squadron Flyer At Aldwark Manor Estate EBF Restricted Maiden Stakes (GBB Race) (Class D) over 6f on good ground with 8 runners. Morning price 67.00. Our rated price is 28.74. 15 other horses qualified today and are reserved for subscribers.
Today’s meetings
| Ripon | 8 | 13:55–17:50 | | Roscommon | 7 | 16:50–19:55 | | Chepstow | 8 | 13:45–17:45 | | Downpatrick | 7 | 14:12–17:39 | | Cartmel | 6 | 14:35–17:30 | | Epsom | 7 | 13:50–17:15 | | Southwell | 8 | 13:32–17:35 |
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