John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Three points of interest
Secret Oath bids to follow in dam’s footsteps
Only one of the dozen fillies in Nottingham’s five-furlong maiden for two-year-olds (14:52) has any experience but it looks likely to go to one of the newcomers in what looks a hot contest on paper with some big owners represented.
Among them is Charlie Appleby’s Secret Oath, a daughter of Lope de Vega who cost €550,000 as a yearling, though that doesn’t make her the most expensive filly in the line-up as Wathnan’s Zelaina was a recent £650,000 purchase at the breeze-ups and looks the Godolphin filly’s chief rival for Karl Burke. Secret Oath is of interest, though, because her dam Bletchley made a successful debut in this same race nine years ago.
Trained by Ralph Beckett for Qatar Racing, Bletchley very nearly followed up that debut success at Royal Ascot as she stayed on strongly to be beaten just a short head in the Albany Stakes. A useful filly, Bletchley was also twice runner-up in listed company as a three-year-old and raced in North America at four when second in a Grade 2 contest at Woodbine in Canada. Bletchley’s siblings include the fillies Time Scale and Miaharris who both won listed sprints at two, so Secret Oath has the pedigree to make her mark here and could even earn a place at Royal Ascot if matching her dam’s exploits first time up.
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Get The Value at Newton Abbot
Not many horses get to run in their own race but that’s the case at Newton Abbot where the Michael Blake-trained Clearance has the opportunity to improve his fine record at the track in the Clearance Handicap Hurdle (16:05). All six of his wins over hurdles for his current stable have come at the Devon track, and he’s going for a third win in the race that’s now been named in his honour after victories in 2022 and again last year when winning cosily and looking better than ever at the age of ten.
Harry Cobden has been booked for Clearance’s attempt at a third win in this contest and he seems sure to make a bold bid off bottom weight given that he’s 9 lb lower in the weights than when successful twelve months ago. He ran his best race for a while when fourth over a longer trip at the track last month and would no doubt be a popular winner.
However, the one who might spoil the party is just above him in the weights. Get The Value is very much on an upward curve for John O’Shea and is fancied to complete a hat-trick. It took him a while to get off the mark but a change to front-running tactics proved successful in a novice handicap at Stratford late last season and he followed up in a similar event at Newton Abbot last month when a clear-cut winner from Stinginhisstep who has himself won at the same course since. Get The Value earned the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag for his latest win and he can win again in what looks a competitive little race.
Useful Irish hurdlers on Ebor trail
The Curragh’s evening card features the Sky Bet Race To The Ebor Handicap (19:30) where the winner earns an automatic place in the line-up for the sponsors’ valuable contest at York in August. With seventeen runners, there are plenty to consider in a field where the weights are headed by Dermot Weld’s smart stayer Harbour Wind who makes his handicap debut.
Further down the handicap, however, are a pair who are very much of interest on their return to the Flat given their exploits over hurdles this spring. One of those is Gavin Cromwell’s mare Sixandahalf who shaped best when runner-up in the Dawn Run at the Cheltenham Festival but probably wasn’t over that hard race when third at Punchestown just over a month ago. She made into a useful stayer on the Flat last season, ending her campaign with an excellent third in the Irish Cesarewitch.
Slight preference, though, is for Joseph O’Brien’s Mr Percy at the foot of the weights. Lightly raced under both codes, he put up a useful effort on his last run over hurdles at Fairyhouse in April to win a Grade 2 novice in cosy fashion. Also the impressive winner of a maiden on the Flat at Gowran in the autumn when beating the Champion Hurdle third Winter Fog, Mr Percy has the profile to win a good prize or two back on the level.
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