31 Jul 2020
Galway Guinness Handicap Hurdle (Grade B)
18 Jul 2020
John Smith's Cup (Heritage Handicap)
11 Jul 2020
B365 Bunbury Cup (Heritage Handicap)
A very exciting day for us, as the ENIGMA Syndicates have a stake in Ventura Tormenta who takes his chance in the Superlative Stakes today, provided the ground dries up to somewhere around goodish. We think he'll appreciate the extra furlong.
These are the days we dream about. Through ENIGMA, his owners paid just £251 per share.
The Bunbury Cup
I've been looking at CARDSHARP all week. He has a really good course record, 7fl is his trip and he's sure to go off a nice price.
The selection won a Group 2 here as a juvenile and was only beaten 1 length in this race as a 3-y-o, carrying 8lbs more. He's still only 5-y-o now and has worked down to a very attractive mark.
Poor recent form means nothing for an older Johnson handicapper. Cardsharp's form was poor coming into the race 2 years ago when he 4th and there were clear signs of revival early season this year.
There is more than a whiff of him being lined up by Mark Johnston today. James Doyle rode all his past good races here and he's back on board today.
Cardsharp has won on good and gd-sft before. I also tend to like stalls 10+ in this race, and the other Johnston runners are drawn low.
It will be no surprise at all if he heavily outruns his price today, which is somewhere up around 22's.
4.10 Newmarket, Cardsharp 1.25pt win BSP, 1.25pt 5 places BSP
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4 Jul 2020
Investec Derby (Group 1)
Great to be back with the blog after a very good week at Ascot.
My Key Racing Gold thread on the ENIGMA forum has operated at 70% return on investment since racing resumed behind closed doors - and hopefully, you took advantage of our confident tip for the St James Palace.
Today we move on to the Derby and I think this shapes like a day to respect the Ballydoyle improvers.
In the modern era, Coolmore rule the Derby in terms of profit potential. When they don't win they hit the frame, including some very lumpy prices.
Their slow-maturing runners with just a single pipe-opener prep often take a big step forward on the day and confound the market.
So, I focus on Ballydoyle runners with 1 prep run who were ridden by Heffernan, Moore or (while riding), Joseph O'Brien.
Jockeys for the big day itself must be Irish-based or Ryan Moore.
If you followed that criteria in the modern era (since 2012), staked 1pt EW at SP:
7 win or placed from 11 qualifiers (incl 4 wins) +53.50 pts profit.
Mogul is the sole qualifier this year. The full brother of Japan, Mogul ran a quietly taking prep (rather like Japan himself) and this very much looks the long-range plan. I backed Japan last year - he really should have won, was much the best horse in the race and soon made up for it.
I think Mogul will be extremely hard to keep out of the frame today and if he progresses as expected will be firmly in the mix.
4.55 Epsom, Mogul 1pt win BSP, 1.5pt 4 places BSP
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