Premiere Ligne In First Time Blinkers
It's the turn of the stayers at Newmarket in the Cesarewitch premier handicap.
A marathon trip of two miles two furlongs on good to soft ground is a proper stamina test. National Hunt trainers have dominated this race, training eight of the past ten winners.
Premiere Ligne should have really won the Cesarewitch trial last month. He travelled the best and just didn’t help his jockey on the final climb to the line. I am not surprised that trainer Hughie Morrison has applied first time blinkers to assist. As well as applying blinkers Hughie has booked 5lb claiming jockey Jack Doughty. It’s a bold move and could well pay dividends as it reduces the weight to be carried to 7-12!
That’s a major positive as is the fact that Premiere Ligne stayed 2m4.5f at the Goodwood festival. This horse has been most consistent all season winning one and finishing inside the top three on his five other starts. Hughie Morrions knows what it takes to win this race having trained Sweet Selection to win back in 2016.
Ndaawi ran a big race to finish second in the Galway Hurdle. He met some traffic and could never get close to the prominent running winner, Nurburgring. Ndaawi will love the good to soft ground having run well in Juvenile hurdle races last winter. The form of his third-place finish carrying top weight of 11-12 in the Fred Winter handicap is rock solid. Eagles Reign who finished a neck ahead of Ndaawi franked the form recently, winning the Lartigue hurdle at Listowel.
Ndaawi ran well enough on the flat on quick ground at Royal Ascot over 2m4f. A handicap mark of 92 on the flat looks good with a nice weight of only 8-11. Gordon Elliott trained Pied Piper to finish second last season and looks to go one better this time around with Ndaawi.
Of the rest, I think there is not enough pace up front to suit Carrytheone who needs to be delivered late and is ridden by Jamie Spencer.
Newmarket 3:40
0.5 point each way Premiere Ligne 14/1 Betfred, William Hill, Unibet & Boylesports, paying 6 places
0.5 point each way Ndaawi 14/1 Betfred & Boylesports, paying 6 places.
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Best of Luck,
Nicky
Past Results
Click to see past Big Saturday Race Preview Tips results
The Cesarewitch Handicap is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Newmarket over a distance of 2 miles and 2 furlongs (3,621 metres), and finishes on the Rowley Mile. It is scheduled to take place each year in October.
History
"Cesarewitch" is an anglicised version of Tsesarevich, the title of the heir to the throne in Imperial Russia. The race was named in honour of Tsesarevich Alexander (later Tsar Alexander II), after he donated £300 to the Jockey Club.
The event was established in 1839, and the inaugural running was won by Cruiskeen. It was founded in the same year as another major handicap at Newmarket, the Cambridgeshire. The two races came to be known as the Autumn Double.
The Cesarewitch initially took place before the Cambridgeshire, but the schedule was later reversed and it is now held two weeks after the other race. Three horses completed the double in the 19th century — Rosebery (1876), Foxhall (1881) and Plaisanterie (1885) — but the feat has been rarely attempted since then.
The race was formerly staged during Newmarket's Champions' Day meeting in mid-October and became part of a new fixture called Future Champions Day in 2011. In 2014 the Cesarewitch was separated from Future Champions Day, which was moved back a week in the calendar, and in 2015 it returned to the Saturday of the new Future Champions Festival
Godolphin Cesarewitch Heritage Handicap Winners Over The Past 10 years
Year | Winner | Age | Weight | Jockey | Trainer | SP | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | The Shunter | 10 | 9-01 | James Doyle | Emmet Mullins | 12/1 | 3:52.64 |
2022 | Run For Oscar | 7 | 8-11 | David Egan | Charles Byrnes | 4/1 | 3:52.87 |
2021 | Buzz | 7 | 8-13 | Oisin Murphy | Nicky Henderson | 8/1 | 3:48.43 |
2020 | Great White Shark | 6 | 8-06 | Jason Watson | Willie Mullins | 9/2 F | 3:55.15 |
2019 | Stratum | 6 | 9-02 | Jason Watson | Willie Mullins | 25/1 | 3:58.64 |
2018 | Low Sun | 5 | 9-02 | Seamie Heffernan | Willie Mullins | 10/1 | 3:48.96 |
2017 | Withhold | 4 | 8-08 | Silvestre de Sousa | Roger Charlton | 5/1 F | 3:45.59 |
2016 | Sweet Selection | 4 | 8-08 | Silvestre de Sousa | Hughie Morrison | 7/1 | 3:53.41 |
2015 | Grumeti | 7 | 8-02 | Adam Beschizza | Alan King | 50/1 | 3:56.02 |
2014 | Big Easy | 7 | 8-07 | Tom Queally | Philip Hobbs | 10/1 | 3:49.10 |
Best of Luck,
Nicky