The Great St Wilfrid Handicap, the showpiece event of the season at Ripon, is the highlight of Saturday\u2019s racing programme from a betting perspective and the form from what is effectively a trial for this \u00a3100k contest, over the same track and trip 12 days ago, could well prove to be the strongest indication on offer.<\/p>\n
Four of Saturday\u2019s runners \u2013 Mister Sox, Kodiac Thriller, First Folio and Grant Wood \u2013 lined up for that strongly run event, finishing first, third, sixth and eighth respectively, while track-specialist Fortamour, who is fancied to run a big race in the consolation event at 2.45, was fourth.<\/p>\n
All four have decent claims on Saturday but the most interesting contender is Grant Wood <\/strong>(3.20), who was a convincing winner of the consolation race 12 months ago off a 4lb lower mark.<\/p>\n Paul Midgley\u2019s sprinter was returning from a two-month break last time out, when he was just under four lengths behind Mister Sox, and has since been dropped 1lb in the weights.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s race has probably been the target since his track-and-trip win last summer and Aiden Brookes\u2019s 3lb claim is another positive.<\/p>\n Newbury 1.50<\/strong> There was an immediate result when Ralph Beckett applied cheekpieces to Pinhole <\/strong>in a handicap at Ascot\u2019s King George meeting in July as the impeccably bred son of Frankel powered nearly six lengths clear of his field. He was below-par in the Queen\u2019s Vase at the Royal meeting but if the headgear\u2019s effect is maintained, he should take this return to Group Two company in his stride.<\/p>\n Newmarket 2.05<\/strong> The drop back from seven furlongs to six drew significant improvement from Binhareer <\/strong>last time out, and the visual impression of his three-and-a-quarter length win was backed up by a strong time. An 8lb rise in the weights is towards the lower end of what might have been expected.<\/p>\n Newbury 2.25<\/strong> The six-year-old mare Lil Guff <\/strong>is more exposed than several rivals but put up a useful performance when a close third last time out on her first start for 82 days and even a modicum of improvement would put her right in the mix.<\/p>\n Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Saturday tipsShow<\/p>\n Ripon 1.35<\/b> Ohara 2.10<\/b> Al Shaham 2.45<\/b> Fortamour\u00a03.20 <\/b>Grant Wood (nap) 3.50<\/b> Havana Prince 4.24<\/b> Spring Chorus 4.59<\/b> Bay Dream Believer\u00a0<\/p>\n Newbury 1.50<\/b> Pinhole 2.25<\/b> Lil Guff 3.00<\/b> Cracking Gold 3.35<\/b> King\u2019s Gamble 4.10<\/b> Wechaad 4.45<\/b> Respiro Solitario 5.20<\/b> Skimmer\u00a0<\/p>\n Perth 3.55<\/b> Chantilly Wings 4.30<\/b> Gale Mahler 5.05<\/b> Spit Spot 5.35<\/b> Happy Index 6.07<\/b> Rock On Pedro 6.38<\/b> Raby Mere 7.08<\/b> Coutach<\/p>\n Doncaster 1.57<\/b> Echo Of Glory 2.32<\/b> Akho Mezzna\u00a03.07<\/b> Commander Of Life 3.40<\/b> Keats House 4.15<\/b> Grandlad 4.50<\/b> Release The Storm 5.25<\/b> Absolute Star<\/p>\n Newmarket 2.05<\/b> Binhareer (nb) 2.40<\/b> The Joker 3.15<\/b> Goldie Bear 3.45<\/b> Moon Angel 4.20<\/b> Nanny Park 4.55<\/b> Wonderbolt\u00a0<\/p>\n Market Rasen 5.15<\/b> Joueuse Royale 5.50<\/b> Nap Hand 6.23<\/b> Harel Du Marais 6.53<\/b> Ribeye 7.28<\/b> Olivers Travels 8.03<\/b> Sixty Plus\u00a0<\/p>\n Bath 5.40<\/b> Trojan Truth 6.15<\/b> Star Of Atlantis 6.46<\/b> Calafiori 7.16<\/b> Sundiata Keita 7.46<\/b> Secret Handsheikh 8.16<\/b> Solar Edge<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n Ripon 2.45<\/strong> Course-specialist Fortamour <\/strong>has reached the veteran stage but is back on a workable mark and ran up to his best over track and trip last time. He was poorly drawn in this race 12 months ago and lost vital ground at the start in 2023 but could well make it third time lucky.<\/p>\n Newbury 3.00 Cracking Gold<\/strong> lost nothing in defeat when second behind Great Acclaim in a well-run contest at Goodwood last month and remains well-handicapped on his winning form at Newmarket in June.<\/strong><\/p>\n Newbury 3.35<\/strong> A competitive renewal of the Group Two Hungerford Stakes with seasoned Group-level performers, potential improvers and a first step into Pattern company for William Haggas\u2019s More Thunder, who followed up a close second in the Wokingham Handicap with a narrow win in the Bunbury Cup last ime out. He looks short enough in the betting on his handicap form, however, and the lightly raced King\u2019s Gamble <\/strong>makes more appeal at the likely odds. Seven furlongs may well prove to be his be ideal trip and he looked sure to improve for the step back up when finishing just under two lengths behind Rage Of Bamby in the six-furlong Hackwood at this track last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Great St Wilfrid Handicap, the showpiece event of the season at Ripon, is the highlight of Saturday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-347326","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\/115034511444380166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347326","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=347326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}