3.00pm Redcar Tips & Betting Preview 03/10/2015

Race Time: 3.00pm Meeting: Redcar Day: Saturday 3rd October Distance: 6f
Full Race Name:  totepool Two-Year Old Trophy (Listed Race) Class One

Racing makes fools of all of us but at first glance, Richard Hannon appears to have a mini stranglehold on this particular contest with both the first and the third highest rated horses currently declared housed in his stable. Orvar is the supposed second string as far as we can tell but then again, he has won a couple of races including last time out at Veliefendi in Turkey, where he picked up close to £90,000 for a comfortable win. He will need to progress again to beat his stable companion on all the form we can gather, but they are all juveniles so who is to say that isn’t possible, with Hayley Turner tasked with the steering this afternoon, replacing Pat Dobbs in the saddle.

If he fails to produce, then it looks like he will simply be outgunned by Log Out Island, the Godolphin owned son of Dark Angel who would be an adequate replacement and/or main form rival. He has finished behind his stablemate at Doncaster in the Flying Childers and seems unlikely to reverse that form if they both show, but if he becomes stable number one, he also takes Group Two form in to a Listed race and would be almost as hard to beat given the chance to compete at this lower level.

Looking for horses in with chances not housed in the Hannon yard could yet prove a fruitless task, but Mark Johnston will be hoping he can beat them all with the improving Haley Bop who will try to make the most of her fillies allowance. A maiden win at Redcar over course and distance bodes well for her chances, as does her Hamilton nursery romp when never really out of second gear, but the rise in competition from a Class Five handicap to a Class One Listed race is quite a leap of faith though if anyone can pull it off, her trainer can.

Yorkshire trainer Tim Easterby has won the race twice in the last three years with Body And Soul and Ventura Mist and clearly has designs on a third win having entered twelve runners at the four-day stage! Early jockey bookings suggest he hopes to rely on Still On Top, with David Allan booked in the saddle. A win first time out in a Pontefract maiden was followed by a highly respectable third to Tasleet at York and then a third to Whitman in a Listed race. That is pretty decent form in the context of this race and he may have slipped under most punters’ radar but has a great each way chance and we await his price with anticipation.

To end with, you can never totally ignore that man Richard Fahey and he has booked Patrick Mathers to ride Mr Lupton, which catches the eye. A beautiful ride by Jamie Spencer (which will take some matching) saw him finish fast and late last time out at Doncaster to win a valuable sales race by a head from useful yardstick Humphrey Bogart, and it is of interest that it would appear he wants to ride him again this afternoon – if anything goes wrong with the main principles, he looks the value call to take full advantage granted the clear passage he will so obviously need.