John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Three points of interest<\/strong><\/p>\n Secret Oath bids to follow in dam\u2019s footsteps<\/strong><\/p>\n Only one of the dozen fillies in Nottingham\u2019s five-furlong maiden for two-year-olds (14:52<\/a>) 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.<\/p>\n Among them is Charlie Appleby\u2019s Secret Oath<\/a><\/strong>, a daughter of Lope de Vega who cost \u20ac550,000 as a yearling, though that doesn\u2019t make her the most expensive filly in the line-up as Wathnan\u2019s Zelaina<\/strong> was a recent \u00a3650,000 purchase at the breeze-ups and looks the Godolphin filly\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s exploits first time up. <\/p>\n Join The Sporting Life Racing Club in one click<\/strong><\/p>\n Get The Value at Newton Abbot<\/strong><\/p>\n Not many horses get to run in their own race but that\u2019s the case at Newton Abbot where the Michael Blake-trained Clearance<\/strong> has the opportunity to improve his fine record at the track in the Clearance Handicap Hurdle (16:05<\/a>). All six of his wins over hurdles for his current stable have come at the Devon track, and he\u2019s going for a third win in the race that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Harry Cobden has been booked for Clearance\u2019s attempt at a third win in this contest and he seems sure to make a bold bid off bottom weight given that he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n However, the one who might spoil the party is just above him in the weights. Get The Value<\/a><\/strong> is very much on an upward curve for John O\u2019Shea 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 \u2018Horse In Focus\u2019 flag for his latest win and he can win again in what looks a competitive little race.<\/p>\n Useful Irish hurdlers on Ebor trail<\/strong><\/p>\n The Curragh\u2019s evening card features the Sky Bet Race To The Ebor Handicap (19:30<\/a>) where the winner earns an automatic place in the line-up for the sponsors\u2019 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\u2019s smart stayer Harbour Wind<\/strong> who makes his handicap debut.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s mare Sixandahalf <\/strong>who shaped best when runner-up in the Dawn Run at the Cheltenham Festival but probably wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n Slight preference, though, is for Joseph O\u2019Brien\u2019s Mr Percy<\/a><\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n Safer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a><\/strong> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a><\/strong> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday. Three points of interest Secret…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-155743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114621438620769714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}