3.45pm Ascot Tips & Betting Preview 03/10/2015

Race Time: 3.45pm Meeting: Ascot Day: Saturday 3rd October Distance: 7f
Full Race Name:  Totescoop6 Challenge Cup (Heritage Handicap) Class One

Just in case we are all in profit by now, the powers that rule Channel 4 have decided we can end our televised racing day with a fiendishly difficult to solve seven furlong handicap where early betting has them going 8/1 the field!  Buckstay heads the early markets for the Peter Chapple-Hyam yard with Jamie Spencer booked nice and early to ride. After winning by a neck at Newmarket off a handicap mark of 97, he ran a blinder dropped back to six furlongs off his new mark of 101 when a running on fifth to Don’t Touch in the Ayr Gold Cup, and off the same mark today and back up in trip he will clearly take some stopping. Sadly for his supporters, only two favourites have taken this race in the last ten years, but then this is such a competitive race that we can hardly claim to be surprised by that statistic.

Up near the top of the weights, Andrew Balding has snapped up Edward Greatrex to ride Make It Up and take five pounds off the three year old’s back. The winner of two of his last three races, he was also fourth to Richard Pankhurst at Haydock which is no disgrace, and he arrives here with a very decent each way chance. Likely to appreciate the better going he seems sure to encounter today, he seems to be improving race by race which is no shock for a son of Halling, though three year olds do not have the best of records and we would look for a double figure price as an absolute minimum.

Chris Wall is one of racings “nice guys”, and is having perhaps his best ever season, and he will be hoping Mr Win can add to his three Newmarket victories. Not necessarily the easiest of rides, he needs cover for as long as possible before being produced late inside the final furlong, but it seems as though this big field may well play to his strengths, and although a six pound penalty could yet be the killer blow, we hope he runs a big race and maybe even a winning one to match his name again.

Looking for outsiders, Tanzeel is a horse we are told is yet to live up to his homework on the track, with Charlie Hills convinced he is better than a handicapper. His York win made us all think he had turned the corner but that was over six furlongs not the seven he faces today, and he has been well beaten twice since (by ten lengths plus), leaving connections scratching their heads in bemusement. It does seem unlikely that he can suddenly become good enough to take this, but he may well run a huge race at a huge price, though whether even that will be enough is open to question.

To round off the day, how about at least considering the infuriating yet talented Burnt Sugar from the Richard Hannon yard? The three year old son of Lope De Vega flatters to deceive more often than not and looked as if he was peaking with a second place to Mubtaghaa at Newmarket when just failing by a neck to get up close home, after which he was slowly away here for a never nearer tenth of sixteen, frustrating his fans yet again. A win record of two from seventeen is hardly impressive, but we are convinced he has a good race in him one day, we only wish we knew when that day would be so we could all make our fortunes!