Prestige Stakes Tips & Betting Preview

An interesting race for two-year-olds to start the day and one where six favourites have won in the last ten renewals and nothing at a double figure price. With seventeen of the last nineteen winners placing in the first three in the race before, it’s a contest for in-form horses historically and that leads us to start our race preview with one that we see as the value call with the James Tate trained Urban Fox (10/1 Each Way) A son of Foxwedge who was well bought at 10,000 Guineas, he won his first two starts at Yarmouth and Kempton over six and seven furlongs before finishing fourth to On Her toes at Sandown when bumped and knocked out of her stride. She improved considerably last time out to finish a nose behind the same rival in fourth in the Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket (Grecian Light in second) when possibly left with a bit too much to do, and if ridden a bit nearer the pace she can surprise this afternoon.

The aforementioned Grecian Light (5/2) comes in to the equation for Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby after a maiden win at Newmarket and the second to Nations Alexander on only her second outing. A daughter of Shamardal, it seems fair to suggest that she has a lot more room for improvement than some of her rivals with so few miles on the clock, and still holds some Group One entries for later in the season though what that means when they are trained for Godolphin is always open to question.

Charlie Hills is a trainer in among the winners with a good recent strike rate, and he runs Arwa (15/2) here as he looks to follow up her very comfortable two and a half length maiden win at Ripon over six furlongs a week or so ago. A daughter of Holy Roman Emperor out of a Gone West mare, she is bred to appreciate faster ground so any forecast rain would be a potential negative, but with the probability of even more improvement to come she takes her rightful place near the top of the contenders in our early preview here.

On official ratings, Mark Johnston’s Kilmah (9/2) tops the list though she failed to finish in the first three last time out and will need to rock recent trends if she wants to succeed. After winning a novice stakes on her debut at Newmarket but has been running in far better races since with a sixth to Brave Anna in the Group Three Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, a three-quarter length fourth to Roly Poly in the Group Two Cherry Hinton at Newmarket, a four length second to Fair Eva in the Group Three Princess Margaret Stakes back at Ascot, and a seven of eight to Queen Kindly last weekend at York in the Group Two Lowther Stakes. Depending on how you look at it that either proves she is up to this class, or proves she isn’t, but either way she does have the form in the book to go close and deserves a mention for that reason alone.

Lastly, in the absence of On Her Toes we have Promising (9/1) who has to be of interest for trainer Richard Hannon. Why they would send a maiden here is the fascinating question after her two runs have seen a second here over six furlongs in a decent maiden and a third to Partitia at Newbury over the same distance, but we have to wonder if she has been showing something special on the gallops to warrant this entry, or is that just a conspiracy theory?