Fingers Crossed Its Third Time Lucky in Portland

A super Saturday of racing with the St Leger meeting at Doncaster and Day 1 of Irish Champions Weekend at Leopardstown.

We take aim at the Portland handicap at Doncaster where we back two value priced runners against the field.

Wentworth Falls has been well backed but remains of interest at double figure prices. We backed him in this race last year when he met all sorts of trouble before coming with a wet sail all too late claiming fifth place. Back in 2018 he placed third behind Amomentofmadness who lines up again and is the likely pace angle to this race. In fact, both Amomentofmadness and Justanotherbottle will go forward and are drawn close to Wentforth Falls. Connor Beasley will be at pains to get a nice posse in behind those pace horses and if he can slot in behind it will give Wentworth falls a big chance of finally landed this prize. Doncaster brings out the best in Wentworth Falls as he won here over 6f in June proving he is as good as ever. A rating of 94 looks fine and the good ground is fine.

Wedding Date ran well in Stewards Cup when bang in contention a half furlong from the line only to run out of petrol and lose a few positions near the line. The Stewards Cup is as competitive a handicap as you will find any year so she relishes big sprints where the pace is generally strong. There should be a fast pace on here thanks to Amomentofmadness and Justanotherbottle and a positive is both of those pace horses are drawn close by. Theodore Ladd is a particularly good claiming jockey who takes off 3lbs and is back onboard having ridden this filly in the Stewards Cup. She is running consistently well all summer without getting her head in front so today might just be her day. We can forgive her latest run as the ground was too soft and she broke slowly.