1.45pm York Tips & Betting Preview 25/07/2015

Race Time: 1.45pm Meeting: York Distance: 1m 2f 88yds
Full Race Name:  Sky Bet Best Odds Guaranteed EBF Fillies’ Stakes  (Handicap) Class Three

Free Tip: Chain Of Daisies to win at 5/4 

This race looks likely to provide money for old rope for us punters if past races are anything to go by as only one of the last ten winners has started at odds greater than 10/1, with five winning favourites (one joint), and two other winners at odds lower than 4/1, so a promising start! Three year olds also hold sway historically at least, with six of the ten fitting that age group (and this year they have no choice by the way, every runner is of that age group), while being trained in Newmarket would have been no bad thing either with seven winners out of ten – though this year they aren’t even represented so that was a waste of our time! Just the six runners are set to go to post headed in the weights by the David O’Meara trained Supreme Occasion (6/1) who has to give upwards of two pounds away to all her rivals. A daughter of Teofilo she won her first two races at Thirsk and Newcastle, she has had a total of six races since without success though to be fair, many were in Listed or even Group company, a different world to this class three handicap.  Last time out she did show signs of an imminent return to form when two and a half lengths runner up to Roxy Star at Ascot, but the winner is still unbeaten after three races and may be a far better filly than the handicapper thought. Her breeding does suggest she ought to be better over this mile and a quarter but the truth is she has yet to win beyond seven furlongs and that plus top weight may be enough to stop her.

Trainer Henry Candy is in amongst the winners again as seen with Exoplanet Blue on Wednesday afternoon who never looked in any danger, and he may well send Chain Of Daisies (5/4) for this valuable prize, and she would also be of plenty of interest. After a running on fourth on her seasonal return at Chelmsford they wisely stepped the daughter of Rail Link up to this far more suitable mile and a quarter or so, and with two wins from two attempts at Goodwood and Sandown, it has certainly reaped dividends. She has gone up in the weights by a total of twenty pounds now which will not make her life any easier, and this is a big step up in class from the Class Four event she last won, though she is going the right way and all things are possible with an improving filly at this time of the year.   Looking for a filly that may have got in under the radar seems to point to the O’Meara second string in All About Time (14/1). She has only had the one run so far this season when a well beaten fifth to Maleficent Queen at Carlisle over a mile but found things happening all too quickly for her that day and could be much better suited to this trip, though why she hasn’t gone down even a pound for that run makes us still wonder if the handicapper has her in his grasp.

Mythical City (15/2) disappointed a bit at Newmarket to put it mildly when stone cold last of ten (beaten thirty three lengths), but surely that was too bad to be true? The son of Rock Of Gibraltar had won his previous three races in a row at Haydock Ripon and Chester and although we realise that Newmarket was a tougher assignment off a higher rating, he should not have run that badly. Silvestre De Sousa has already been booked to ride so we assume he is over whatever ailed him that day, though as there is every possibility he needs and deserves a break, it will take a lot of non runners for us to back him here, Mark Johnston or not! To end with, how about the Richard Fahey trained Abbey Angel (10/1) as our last option for now? A daughter of Arcano, she won a couple of races last season which is no mean feat, and has finished third and fourth this season without ever looking likely to threaten the judge, but with the stables record in these events we write her off at our peril!