Rosalind can be another Lady Sprint winner for Haggas
The Weatherbys Super Sprint is the race where the sales ring frames the weights, with the bargain buys at public auction handed the biggest breaks and the pricier purchases forced to carry more lead in the saddle. The cheaper the horse, the lighter the burden.
So, on bare form, Bint Archange towers over the field. She is the highest-rated runner in the line-up, sitting on a BHA mark of 94, while poor old Devon Angel props up the ratings on just 44. That is a staggering 50lb gulf in ability, yet Bint Archange is giving away only 9lb.
By the cold logic of the race conditions, Bint Archange looks thrown in, but racing is rarely that simple. She bombed out in the Queen Mary, and although she came back to form winning at Sandown last time, Richard Hughes was left with more questions than answers after the Royal Ascot no-show.
This is where favourite backers should start sweating. The market appears to be clinging to her Listed form as if the race is already won, but the Super Sprint is a contest in which the flashiest form is not always the smartest angle. Lurking beneath the surface can be found lightly raced maiden winners whose true level of ability may not yet be on show.
With that in mind, step forward LADY ROSALIND. The William Haggas-trained filly has the look of a serious player and when this yard takes this route, it pays to take notice.
Haggas knows the drill in this sales-race jungle, having struck in the race three years ago with Relief Rally, a filly who had advertised her class when finishing runner-up in the Queen Mary.
Of course, this is a different test altogether for Lady Rosalind. A Ripon maiden win is not the same as a cavalry charge in the Super Sprint. But the clues are there. She is twice raced, improving fast and clearly blessed with early gate speed.
Her breakthrough win had plenty to like about it. She made short work of the favourite who had previously split a pair of next-time-out winners at Carlisle, and it confirmed the money for her on debut was not misplaced.
The bloodlines only add to the promise. A 38,000gns yearling by Starman, she is a half-sister to 108-rated Excellent Believe and a full-sister to Listed winner Soul Love, a useful six-furlong winner who also got the job done at two.
Man to marvel this weekend but possibly in Ireland
MARVELMAN is entered in the Hackwood Stakes at Newbury on Saturday, but Andrew Balding is likely to be aiming for an ambitious Curragh raid with Sunday’s Group 2 Minstrel Stakes firmly the plan.
Draw a line through Saudi. Before that, he looked every inch a proper horse when winning the Park Stakes, and he roared right back in the Chipchase at Newcastle last month.
That was smart form. He carried a 5lb penalty for Doncaster and still came out of it with credit, trying to concede weight to Paborus, who looked a Group 1 horse in waiting for Ed Bethell.
He’s got no penalty this time, no excuses either. If he heads to Ireland, the watered ground and return to seven furlongs make him a major player.
Back at Newbury, SHRIMP SHADY can shrug off a Northumberland Vase defeat and bounce back in Saturday’s staying handicap.
He made it two wins from three on turf when scoring at Chester in May and was beaten only late last time. Still unexposed as a stayer, he looks ready to strike back on turf.
Balding and Oisin Murphy team up at Epsom on Thursday with ZARAKOVA, who can leave a forgettable Wolverhampton debut miles behind. This 190,000gns daughter of Zarak is bred to be useful and finds calmer waters in the opener.
At Hamilton on Friday, John and Thady Gosden send SUPERIOR CHOICE on the long road north for the Glasgow Stakes, a Listed contest that often throws up a future star or two.
Superior Choice has looked a colt going places in winning his last two starts and is fancied to take the step up in class in his stride. The son of Dubawi shaped nicely on debut at Newmarket last autumn and has kicked on this year, winning at Leicester before defying a penalty back at Newmarket.
The Leicester form has worked out well, with runner-up Heyzoom winning next time and later finishing fourth in the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot. He can add his name to the illustrious roll of honour here as a stepping stone to Group company.
Harry Cobden has become the man to follow in the Summer Plate, having plundered the £100,000 prize in each of the last three years, and his latest booking is sure to make punters sit up and take notice. JP McManus’s new number one jockey has been snapped up by Keiran Burke for SOUL ICON, who has unfinished business in this race.
Soul Icon found another gear, shaping as though a major handicap was within reach when narrowly denied in both Market Rasen’s Summer Plate and Wincanton’s Rising Stars Novices’ Chase during the 2024/25 jump season.
His breakthrough chase success then duly arrived in the Desert Orchid, where he accounted for Grade 1 winner Edwardstone, albeit while receiving a stone and a half - that piece of form gives Burke’s runner a persuasive profile here if Cobden can rekindle any spark of his old form.
Cobden also gets the leg-up on NO MORE BOLERO for James Owen half an hour later in the extended 2m hurdle. Connections were reportedly delighted with his final piece of work and he arrives hard fit from the Flat.
He has won two of four over hurdles since joining Owen, and the latest Worcester success was better than it looked. He travelled in snatches, lost his place and was briefly last after four out, but still rallied to lead on the run-in.
One to watch for the ATR Tracker
Ian Williams reminded everyone what a shrewd dual-purpose operator he is by saddling the one-four in the Bunbury Cup with Supido and race specialist Aalto, whose record in the handicap now reads 121 across the last three years.
There was frustration, though, when stablemate BEYLERBEYI appeared to finish full of running in fourth on the Friday card without getting a proper crack at the leaders under Billy Loughnane.
He was closing when short of room late and eased down when the gaps did not come. Held up and keen early, he made ground from three furlongs out, took fourth inside the final furlong and was still keeping on when denied a run.
Williams may be working back from a Cesarewitch defence, but Beylerbei has races in him from this mark and belongs in the tracker.
One from the gallops: ante-post view
KALPANA is a tempting bet at 10-1 ante-post for the King George, especially with connections reportedly confident she will hit the frame. Her work at Kingsclere has the team buzzing before her Ascot rematch on Saturday week with Calandagan.
He had her measure last year, no doubt about that. But the question now is whether he can hit the same heights again. Kalpana is in rude health and her Hardwicke second should not be knocked. She travelled like the winner for a long way before perhaps getting there sooner than ideal off a strong gallop.
It was also the third time she had bumped into Giavellotto, one of the most underrated Group horses around, so there is no need to mark the run down.
And do not forget last year’s King George, when she ran a stormer back against the colts over a mile and a half. Held up, she cruised into contention, led over two furlongs out and quickened clear before being caught inside the final 100 yards. That was a career-best, and her physique, love of her work remains undiminished.
