Saturday's free feature is the Trainer/Jockey Combo (TJC) report, which works by bringing together the form of trainers and jockeys into a single composite report that has produced excellent results for users. Basically, some trainers turn to specific riders when they have one ‘ready to win’ and this report quickly identifies the most profitable of those combinations. Clicking on any row will reveal the entries for that trainer/jockey pairing whilst clicking on the entry will open the race in a new tab.
HINT: Look for a good sample size – ideally five or more – combined with a decent win percentage (30%+), and a positive figure in the profit column and as ever, please refer to our User Guide for further information.
My own settings for the TJC Report look like this...
...and they have generated qualifiers as follows...
30-day form
1-year form
5-year course form
...for me to consider in addition to our selection of daily 'free' races...
- 1.42 Perth
- 2.17 Perth
- 3.17 Newmarket
- 3.34 Ayr
- 4.20 Ascot
- 8.00 Limerick
Clearly the best of the TJC report / free races has to be the Hardwicke Stakes, so my last column of the week will focus upon the 4.20 Ascot, an 8-runner, Group 2 flat contest for horses aged 4 and over. It's worth over £140k to the winner, who'll tackle a right handed 1m4 on good to firm ground...
I suspect that Hukum will be fairly short here and that the market will also like Frankie's mount, Free Wind, but that might opn up a nice E/W option for us even if I end up with those two as my first picks from a field in which only Ardakan, Changingoftheguard and Deauville Legend failed to win last time out.
All of them raced at Class 1 last time around and Ardakan wears first-time cheekpieces on his UK debut. He has yet to win over this course or trip, but he's not alone, as West Wind Blows also fits that description. Deauville Legend, Grand Alliance and Free Wind have already won over this trip elsewhere, whilst Changingoftheguard, Hukum and Pyledriver have all won Class 1 races over course and distance with the latter's triumph in last year's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes the pick.
That said, this race might just be a pipe-opener for Pyledrive to attempt to retain that crown, as he hasn't raced since that win 336 days ago and he might well need the run. Mind you, he was the runner-up in last year's Coronation Cup (behind Hukum) after another long absence. Deauville Legend hasn't raced since last November's Melbourne Cup, so he might be rusty too but the remainder have all raced this season.
Pyledriver is best off at the weights here, as he's rated 2lbs higher than Hukum with Free Wind next best. She's the only female in the race and her 3lbs weight allowance bring her to within 6lbs of Pyledriver. Worst off looks like Grand Alliance, rated some 18lbs worse than Pyledriver.
As you'd expect for a race of this magnitude, most of the field have already performed well in similar past contests and we can see this via Instant Expert...
Ardakan has no UK form, of course, but his overseas form doesn't suggest he'd be likely to win here and with Grand Alliance's numbers clearly the worst above, I'm ready to eliminate him from my enquiries too, leaving me with six to consider. Grand Alliance is drawn in stall 2 and our draw stats suggest that his low draw would also have counted against him here...
...with stalls 4 to 7 producing the most winners...
...although the place stats for stalls 8 & 9 will give hope to widest drawn Free Wind, who likes to race quite prominently tracking the leaders, but she's unlikely to lead here, as the likes of Changingoftheguard, Pyledriver and West Wind Blows are likely to battle it out early on if recent outings are anything to go by...
What is apparent here is that aside from mid-division runners faring really badly, horses van win from any draw and with any running style, as reflected in the pace/draw heatmap...
...which applied to our field looks like this...
It's always dangerous to rule out an A P O'Brien horse ridden by Ryan Moore, but I fear that Changingofthe guard might well do too much early if he has company/competition for the lead and on that basis, I'm ruling him out here and he did fade away last time out. I've already decided against Grand Alliance and Ardakan, of course and I think Deauville Legend might struggle too, especially based on the pace/draw stats.
Summary
I've eliminated four of the eight runners so far, leaving myself with Hukum, Pyledriver, West Wind Blows and Free Wind. West Wind Blows is arguably the weakest of the four, having not won higher than Listed company, but if one of the other trio fails to fire, you could have yourself a nice E/W bet at 20/1.
Of that trio, I don't think there's that much between them, but this is probably a warm-up event for Pyledriver and at current odds of 15/2, it'd just be a small E/W bet, leaving me to pick between the 2/1 fav Hukum and Frankie's 5/2 Free Wind. There's surely very little between them and they're both in good nick, but the way Frankie is riding right now, I'd have to just about side with Free Wind.