The Fitzdares Windsor Sprint Series Final is worth over £38,000 to the winner and features a top-class field of six-furlong contenders; also at Ripon, there is some quality Class 3 action on the card; watch both meetings live on Sky Sports Racing
Sky Sports Racing’s Elliot David has five runners to consider on a cracking Monday of action from Windsor and Ripon.
JURI – 3.20 Ripon
Although an evening at Windsor could surely have been an option, it will be North Yorkshire for Hollie Doyle who travels to the ‘Garden Racecourse’ for just the one ride aboard this nicely-bred debutant for Roger Varian in her retained role for owner Imad Alsagar.
The daughter of Invincible Spirit takes the eye on breeding as a half-sister to Alsagar’s Extra Elusive and full sister to two-year-old Group 2 winner Ajaya. In a race where the form standard set does not look too imposing, she will surely be in with a good shout of making a winning start.
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LERWICK – 5.05 Ripon
Seasoned-handicappers Poet’s Dawn and Casilli fell to defeat at the hands of a three-year-old in receipt of the weight-for-age allowance over course and distance on July 22 and I think a similar fate may await here.
Ed Bethell’s Awtaad gelding Lerwick got off the mark in style at Pontefract on July 11, seeing off the 77-rated Paternoster Square comfortably. That came after his luckless handicap run at Doncaster, when repeatedly hampered to the point where rider Callum Rodriguez had to ease down.
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Needless to say he seems to be showing signs of progression now his three-year-old campaign is under way, benefitting from his winter gelding op. Bethell’s runners have an excellent record when turned out after a win, with the trainer’s string showcasing a fine 45 per cent strike rate (13 wins from 29 qualifiers) in 2023.
He is bred to improve further now upped in trip, out of a half-sister to Emily Upjohn and with only Poet’s Dawn as an obvious contender for the lead, he may be able to dictate matters from the front in a manner that would suit a track that often favours prominence.
ALBANY – 7.00 Windsor
Ralph Beckett’s daughter of Lope De Vega featured in my last column off the back of a much-improved effort at Kempton on June 14. Unfortunately, she came unstuck at the hands of a 25-1 debutant who in all fairness appeared a well-above-average type as the pair pulled nearly five lengths clear of a 77-rated animal.
Out of a soft ground Group 2 winner in Alyssa, conditions should hold no fear for her here and given her Kempton run saw her finish ahead of the reopposing pair of Taraff and Deep Dive this looks a gilt-edged opportunity for her to get off the mark. I would note any significant market support for the latter, with the Gosden filly making her debut that day at Kempton and the prospect of her improving for that introduction.
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LETHAL NYMPH – 7.30 Windsor
How do you go about picking this one apart? You can make cases for any number of the 15-runner field for the series finale of the excellent Fitzdares Sprint Series. Though the expected soft ground will have harmed the chances of a handful, all looks set for a thriller with 2022 winner Cuban Breeze back to defend her title from the same mark of 85. As with any qualifying series, the protagonists arrive with a tangled web of related form;
Relevant Qualifier Results (winners in bold);
May 15 – Crazy Luck (2nd), Cuban Breeze (5th)
May 22 – Haymaker – Indian Creak (3rd), Lethal Nymph (6th), Count Otto (7th),
Jun 19 – Sterling Knight – Lequinto (2nd), Treacherous (5th)
Jun 26 – Lequinto – Antiphon (2nd), Magical Merlin (4th)
Jul 3 – Lethal Nymph (2nd), Sterling Knight (3rd)
Jul 24 – Count Otto – Heroism (2nd), Amazonian Dream (5th), The Cruising Lord (6th)
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Three-year-olds have found this a difficult task in years gone by, with a record of 0-19 with just two places in the last six renewals seemingly suggestive of the relatively small weight-for-age allowance not being enough to level the playing field against their more experienced counterparts. That would appear to cast doubts over the claims of the hat-trick seeking Knebworth, who steps up sharply in class.
Though the pace appears to be mostly drawn low between stalls three and seven, the tendency for runners to congregate towards the far side when Windsor turns soft complicates this further. Should that scenario play out here, the often substantial bias towards low-drawn runners that you might typically expect at Windsor would likely be somewhat reduced.
I do, however, like the claims of Clive Cox’s Lethal Nymph, who appears to be peaking at the right time this season following a slow start to the campaign. He ran in the July 3 qualifier won by Charles Hills’ Tanmawwy, a race that has produced the winners of this in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and though he remains untested on truly soft ground, is closely related to a talented soft ground winner in River Nymph.
LAWN RANGER – 8.30 Windsor
Now back off the same mark of 62 that he took advantage of to win here in April, Lawn Ranger returns to a winning scenario with the soft ground we can expect looking likely to suit him in a race that lacks any obvious challengers for the lead.
Michael Attwater’s charge is no stranger to the Thameside track, with four wins from 14 starts here and a record over course and distance improving to four from 11. He is yet to win over the extended trip of 1m 3 1/2f and given his now trademark running style you can see why.
The eight-year-old is at his best when dictating matters from the front and his stamina just gives out slightly when over the longer trip. Each of the four wins saw him stationed up front and I think we could see a replication of his win here on April 17 under the same capable guidance of Robert Havlin.
As mentioned, he seems the clear pace angle and could surely get an easy time on the front end in this small field, something that’s been a factor in each of his last five wins. He is 6-35 in single-figure fields versus 1-22 in fields of 10 or more and the six-runner affair combined with soft ground and no obvious pace challengers give this the look of his ideal set-up.
