Thursday's free feature, the Instant Expert racecard tab is one of Geegeez readers' most popular tools because it has the unique ability to condense the entire form profile of every runner in the race into a single, easily digestible, view covering the form in terms of wins (or places), runs, and win (or place) percentage for each of going, class, course, distance, and field size.
It also compares today’s official rating with the horse’s last winning official rating. The display is colour coded: green for a higher percentage rate, amber for a middling percentage, and red for a low percentage. Horses with no form under a certain condition have grey figures.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Where a horse has no UK/Irish form – i.e. it is having its first run in Britain or Ireland under Rules – it will not show up on Instant Expert at all.
We make this feature freely available to ALL readers EVERY Thursday for ALL races, including, naturally, our selection of 'free' races as follows...
- 4.40 Chepstow
- 4.45 Leopardstown
- 4.55 Hamilton
- 6.30 Epsom
- 7.42 Killarney
- 8.30 Leopardstown
...where the 'best' (highest rated, anyway!) of the three UK races looks like being the 6.30 Epsom, an 8-runner, Class 5, 3yo+ flat handicap over a left-handed 1m½f (+33yds after rail movements) on good to soft ground...
Blenheim Star was the only one of this field to have won their last race and she has won three of her last four, making her the clear form horse here. Uncle Dick was a runner-up nine days, having won his previous race and Hello Cotai was also a runner-up a week ago and has made the frame in four of his last five, but the fact remains that he's a nine-race maiden.
Charlie Mason was third on his last outing and did win four starts ago, but aside from the two maidens Hello Cotai (9 attempts) and Seamore (three attempts), only Roundabout has struggled to win of late, going down on eight successive occasions since a win at Bath at the end of last August.
Half of the field are moving class here with three (Uncle Dick, Blenheim Star & Hello Cotai) stepping up a level whilst top weight Shot of Love drops down from Class 4. Seamore makes a handicap debut some ten weeks after the last of three fairly nondescript efforts in Novice company and I should point out that five of this field are only 3 yrs old, meaning they get a 9lb allowance that Shot Of Love (4yo), Uncle Dick (6yo) and Roundabout Silver (5yo) don't benefit from.
We've not much to report in the way of course/distance successes, but Unreal Connection's sole career win from eight starts came here at Epsom over 7f eleven months and six starts ago, whilst Uncle Dick was winner over 1m½f at Wolverhampton way back in January 2021. All of this means that Shot of Love's last Flat win (10 months ago) is the only time any of this field have won over course and distance.
The positives from Instant Expert are that Uncle Dick and Blenheim Star have excellent records over this kind of trip winning a collective 9 of 14 (64.3%) races on the Flat, but conversely Roundabout Silver's 0 from 7 at Class 5 isn't something to write home about...
...and although he has a reasonable place record at the going/track/trip, he has only made the frame once in those seven defeats at this level...
Elsewhere Hello Cotai's recent run of near misses raises his profile as a potential placer, but I still think this might be between those who excel at the trip ie Uncle Dick and Blenheim Star, who will race from stalls 3 and 6 over a track and trip that (to me at least) doesn't seem to offer any discernible draw bias, other than that those drawn lowest have an inferior place record, despite winning their fair share of races...
...and I suspect that it'll be race tactics and race positioning aka pace that determines the outcome here, as the best way of winning here is to set the tempo from the front.
...and the advice is that if you can't set the pace, you might as conserve energy at the back of the field and then come with a late run, taking advantage of those who've blown themselves out getting up the hill. Based on recent outings, Shot of Love is likely to be the pacemaker today, with the likes of Uncle Dick, Blenheim Star and Charlie Mason the ones coming with a late run.
Summary
It has been Blenheim Star and Uncle Dick getting the mentions throughout my summary. Both are in good form, of course, but Blenheim Star is in the better form and benefits from that 9lbs age allowance, so I'd take Blenheim Star to beat Uncle Dick here. As for the other placer, Hello Cotai has made the frame in four of his last five and he could easily makes that five from six here.
I'd no odds to quote at 4pm Wednesday, but I wouldn't be too surprised in the top three in the market are my 1-2-3 and I suspect that none will be E/W backable, but if you wanted an E/W play, then Charlie Mason might be best positioned to edge one of my three out as he's likely to come late with Blenheim Star and Uncle Dick, who might just tow him into contention.
Other Recent Posts by This Author:
- Tix Picks, Saturday 04/01/25
- Tix Picks, Friday 03/01/25
- Tix Picks, Thursday 02/01/25
- Tix Picks, Tuesday 31/12/24
- Tix Picks, Monday 30/12/24
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