Charlie Hills Tanmawwy a danger to Arazio
We tackle the Coral Stewards' Cup (Heritage Handicap) at Goodwood this saturday. It's one of the major sprint handicaps of the season with just short of £129,000 to the winner!
As you can imagine for that sort of prize money lots of trainers and owners fancy their chances with a maximum field of 28 runners declared.
The Charlie Hills trained Tanmawwy finished second on soft ground at Newbury when just caught on the line by Bernardo O’Reilly giving that winner 12lbs. This prominent running type should relish Goodwood and could prove hard to catch. He won really well at Windsor on fast ground a month ago when ridden by William Buick. As a result of that win, he carries a 6lb penalty so a pound above his new official mark of 102. Charlie Hills is astute and has booked top claiming jockey Connor Planas to ride claiming off 5lbs.
Tanmawwy didn't finish amongst the leaders at Newmarket when down the field behind Probe. We can forget that run as in hindsight he had no chance against some well handicapped horses such as Probe & Chairmanoftheboard. Tanmawwy has two ways of running. He is either very good or very poor so fingers crossed he shows his best form today as I think he will enjoy the undulations at Goodwood.
The forecast rain this morning before racing will suit Aleezdancer who loves soft ground. He won on his first run this season at Doncaster over 6f furlongs on soft ground when rated 93. The handicapper was impressed raising him to a new handicap mark of 100. Punters sent him off favourite in a decent handicap at Newmarket but he couldn’t land a touch on Arazio.
The winner was well in that day off 89 and runs here as favourite rated 102 following another win at Ascot. Aleezdancer has not run well on summer ground and has been dropped down to a mark of 96 so he is 17lbs better off against Arazio. The key to this horse is soft ground will all his wins coming either on good to soft or soft ground. Neil Callan rides with Aleezdancer wearing first time pieces and well drawn in stall 2 with lots of pace horses drawn middle to low.
Arazio is the correct favourite and horse to beat. He's very short though at 4/1 in a 28 runner sprint handicap. Maybe one of the older horses such as Mr Wagyu or Aberama Gold will go close at bigger prices.
Goodwood 3:35
0.5 point each way Tanmawwy 14/1 Paddy Power & Betfair SB, 6 places.
0.5 point each way Aleezdancer 11/1 Bet365 else 10/1 Paddy Power & Unibet, all 6 places.
Best of Luck, Nicky