Horseracing Betting Briefing: All the highlights of the next week

General / Andrew Hughes / 03 May 2008 / Leave a Comment

Chester, Ascot and the Curragh are among the jewels in a great week of horseracing as the Flat season gets into stride

With Epsom and Royal Ascot looming over the horizon, this is a busy time for punters. The form is starting to unfurl like a roll of lush turf, the spring air is thick with gallop whispers and beady eyes scrutinise the many trial races for clues.

But if the sheer variety of betting opportunities has you feeling like a one-eyed fish in a cat shop, this guide to the week's essential racing should help keep you focused.

The betting week starts on Sunday, halfway through the first Classic meeting, with 1,000 Guineas Day. Plucking the winner from the midst of a bunch of impeccably bred and improving fillies is a fascinating challenge and punters invariably look to the recognised Guineas trials for inspiration.

Ante-post favourite Natagora [4.2] has scooped two of these, the Cheveley Park Stakes and the Prix Impudence and others prominent in the betting include Infallible [4.8] the winner of the Nell Gwyn and Spacious [6.0] who took the May Hill Stakes last year. Keep an eye out too for Kitty Matchum, victor in last year's Rockfel Stakes, a two year old race that has provided the last two winners of this famous old Classic.

Of course, it's not all about the fillies' Classic and there is a feast of top class racing besides to get your betting teeth into. The Palace House Stakes is a first chance to have a look at the current crop of top class sprinters whilst at the opposite end of the distance spectrum; the Jockey Club Stakes invariably attracts a small but select field of former Derby and St Leger contenders. There is also the famous Oaks trial, the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes, a race well worth investigating for Epsom clues.

Bank Holiday Monday's meeting at the Curragh is an understated affair but could repay close study. As well as an interesting opening two-year-old race likely to include a clutch of well-bred potential stars, there is the Tetrarch Stakes, often an informative trial for the Irish 2000 Guineas. The card also includes an early chance for three-year-old fillies and mares to take on their elders in the Athasi Stakes and the Mooresbridge Stakes, a competitive ten-furlong contest often targeted for potential stayers.

Wednesday sees the start of Chester's May meeting, a three-day carnival of enthusiastic crowds, beautiful surroundings and great betting action. Racing at Chester is tremendous fun and it is hard not to think of the place without smiling. The showpiece is Wednesday's Chester Cup, a unique test of speed and stamina that is one of the treats of British racing and real challenge for the punter. A packed field of staying handicappers charge around the intimate course in the shadow of the Roman viaduct and city fortifications, passing the winning post three times in all. Course experience can be a real advantage, but the ante-post market this time revolves around a trio of unexposed four year olds, headed by Highland Legacy [5.5] though last year's winner Greenwich Meantime is available at [11.5]

Other races include the traditional curtain raiser, the Lily Agnes; the first of the season's prestigious two-year-old races and the Cheshire Oaks, the race that last year produced both the winner and the third in the Epsom Classic. There are two informative Derby trials to keep an eye on as well: the Chester Vase on Thursday and the Dee Stakes on Friday. And besides a host of inviting handicaps to get stuck into, there are a couple of tempting Group Threes; the Huxley Stakes on Thursday over ten furlongs and Friday's Ormond Stakes, another early season test for Group Class stayers.

After the fun and frolics of Chester, the week ends with a typically hectic Saturday. Haydock's Swinton Hurdle is always popular; a big field handicap over two miles that is guaranteed to get the pulse racing.

Ascot hosts a quality meeting based around the Victoria Cup in which a huge field dash up the straight seven furlongs in what can be an excellent pointer to the Royal Hunt Cup.

And following a winter of Polytrack racing, it will be good to see the sweeping slopes of Lingfield's turf course unveiled again, as the Surrey course holds its traditional Derby and Oaks trials.