Racing Insights, Friday 14/06/24

Friday's free feature, the Horses for Courses (H4C) report does exactly what it says on the tin ie it shows the full course history since 2009 of any horse running that has previously had a run at the track and is sorted by number of wins, but this can be changed to any column at your discretion.

As well as today’s race time, course, horse name, jockey and trainer name, there is a breakdown of runs, wins and places, and profit and loss calculations for both win and each way betting and as with all Geegeez reports, there is a ‘Today’ and a ‘Tomorrow’ (for the next day’s racing) view.

HINT: Layers might like to look towards the lower end of the report, for those with negative performance at the track, but as ever please refer to our User Guide for further information!

My own settings (you get to choose your own parameters) for the H4C report...

...are quite restrictive and have produced no qualifiers...

Thankfully, our daily feature is always supplemented by a number of 'free' racecards...

• 1.50 York
• 2.40 Sandown
• 4.35 Chester
• 5.40 Fairyhouse
• 6.25 Market Rasen
• 7.08 Cork

Once again, nothing better than Class 4 from the UK options, so I'm going to look at one of the UK"s joint highest rated contests of the day, the 3.00 York. It's a 13-runner, Class 2, 3yo+ fillies' flat handicap over a straight 6f on good ground...

Jumbeau, Katey Kontent and Apeeling are all last time winners, but Alfa Kellenic comes here on a hat-trick. Midream made the frame LTO after two successive wins, whilst Thursday’s Child has also won two from three but Al Simmo and Conservationist are winless in seven and eight races respectively.

Al Simmo is one of just two runners (along with LTO winner Jumbeau) to have raced at this grade on their last outing, as Katey Content, Flaccianello, Conservationist, Thursday’s Child and Lady Pink Rose all step up from Class 3, whilst Star of Lady M is up two classes with both Apeeling and hat-trick seeker Alfa Kellenic up three levels today!

Three runners are dropping down in class, though, as Midream was third of six in a Haydock Listed race (beaten by 3.25 lengths), Born To Rock was seventh of nine in a Lingfield Group 3 race and Queen of Mougins was eighth of fourteen in a Listed race at Newbury.

A handful of these are a bit short on handicap experience with Thursday’s Child and Alfa Kellenic having just their second such run, whilst it’s handicap debut day for the class droppers Midream, Born To Rock and Queen of Mougins as well as LTO winner Apeeling.

As we know, Al Simmo is winless in seven, having not scored for 23 months now and she now returns to action for the first time since last September, putting her at a disadvantage about her dozen rivals who have all had at least one run in the last five weeks, but she has at least won over today’s trip in the past, unlike Jumbeau, Born To Rock, Conservationist and Lady Pink Rose, whilst none of this baker’s dozen have won here at York before.

That said, only Star of Lady M (placed once in 4 runs), Al Simmo (2 places from 3), Jumbeau (placed on sole visit), Lady Pink Rose (unplaced on sole visit) and Thursday’s Child (also unplaced on sole visit) have previously raced on the Knavesmire…

Instant Expert suggests that Star of Lady M and Jumbeau have struggled to win on good ground, as has Al Simmo at Class 2, unlike Flaccianello who is two from three at this level. Al Simmo has, however, racked up some wins over today's trip with Midream also winning half of her efforts over 6f.

To ensure I'm not relying on old data, I'm now going to look at the place stats over last two years...

...where Al Simmo still has good numbers despite her losing run. Jumbeau also scores well as does Midream.

Decent standard sprints over a straight track on good ground really shouldn't have a huge draw bias and that seems to be the case here...

...but that's not to say that some stalls don't fare better than others, of course...

...but I'm not sure there's enough there to call any bias and I wouldn't have thought that the draw here could make or break a horse's chances, whereas their running style might and as you may have expected, it's those willing to take the race on early doors that have the best results...

...and this is backed up by the pace/draw heat map...

If we then turned to look at how this field have approached their recent races, then the likes of Appealing and Al Simmo could well in a great position...

Summary

Al Simmo hasn't won in almost two years and I don't see her winning this either, but she's a regular placer and has the ideal pace profile to go well here, so could very well make the frame (bookies paying 4 places) and would be a possible E/W shot at 10/1*.

Others that I like are all placed shorter* than her, such as Midream and Jumbeau who both currently trade at 13/2*.

*Odds taken from Hills (only book open) at 3pm UK time.

Other Recent Posts by This Author:

• Tix Picks, Friday 13/12/24
• Tix Picks, Thursday 12/12/24
• Tix Picks, Wednesday 11/12/24
• Tix Picks, Tuesday 10/12/24
• Tix Picks, Monday 09/12/24