Andrew Asquith of Timeform provides an overview of the key things to note for Monday’s racing.
Three points of interest
Note Murphy’s record at Windsor
Oisin Murphy is one of the leading riders at Windsor this season, in fact, there is only Rossa Ryan who has a better strike rate at the track, so with him riding at Pontefract on Monday, Murphy looks the jockey to focus on Monday evening.
Murphy has ridden 10 winners from 38 rides so far this season, while 24 of those rides have also finished in the places, yielding a profit and loss of £7.31 to a £1 level stake. Furthermore, 72.37% of the horses he’s ridden have run to form, Murphy’s record at Windsor this season is definitely one to take note of.
The pick of his seven rides looks to be the Rod Millman-trained Amazonian Dream, who is a regular at Windsor, and Murphy notched his second win on the horse over this course and distance two starts back. Amazonian Dream wasn’t quite at his best on his latest start at this course in a useful, well-run handicap, but he has Murphy back in the saddle now and, interestingly, Murphy and Millman can boast a 19% strike rate when teaming up together at Windsor.
Boughey the handicap king
George Boughey is becoming well known for getting horses well handicapped, having prepared several horses to rack up sequences over the past few years, and Lennon looks another prime example.
He showed nothing more than modest form in three relatively quick starts on the all-weather towards the backend of last year, but he was much stronger in the betting on his return and handicap debut at Bath 16 days ago, and duly proved a different proposition to open his account.
Lennon confirmed himself a progressive sort when following up over a mile at this course eight days ago, weak in the market but progressing another chunk to narrowly prevail close home from one who was back at long odds. Given the stamina in his pedigree, and the way he shaped last time, he will relish this first start at a mile and a quarter, and he looks very interesting again turned out quickly under a penalty.
Rare runner at Wolverhampton for Henderson
Nicky Henderson has had only 19 runners at Wolverhampton since 2009, with 12 of those coming in Flat races (remainder were in jumpers’ bumpers), and a strike rate of 24% suggests you should take a very serious look at what horses he sends to Dunstall Park.
He sends a very interesting runner in the shape of Goblet of Fire on Monday, who won an 11-furlong handicap in the style of a horse that is very well handicapped at Kempton 19 days ago.
Goblet of Fire was a three-time winner on the Flat when trained by Nigel Tinkler and won a juvenile hurdle for these connections at Hereford in January earlier this year. He landed a bit of a gamble returned to the Flat at Kempton, displaying a nice turn of foot to hit the front around two furlongs out and his confirmed stamina came into play from there, always holding the runner-up.
He beat another in-form, well-treated rival on that occasion, and it is interesting that connections are keeping him on the go in this sphere, so he has to be of big interest from a 7 lb higher mark under promising 5lb claimer Tommie Jakes, who is having his first ride for the yard.
Tip of the Day
Ready Freddie Go – 18:30 Wolverhampton
Flags: Horse In Focus, Top Rated
Ready Freddie Go is a regular on turf, but he was successful over this course and distance on his sole visit to Wolverhampton, and he left the impression at Redcar last time that he is ready to strike again.
He was caught only by a pair played later in the day, despite having to check his stride and becoming slightly unbalanced when a football appeared in his racing line around a furlong out, and he has been dropped a further 1lb in the weights since.
Ready Freddie Go hasn’t had many attempts in this grade of handicap, and now 5lb below his last winning mark, he makes plenty of appeal from his inside draw now fitted with first-time blinkers.
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