Horseracing Betting Briefing: Andrew Hughes picks the best races of the coming week

General / Andrew Hughes / 02 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

It starts at Chester and ends with another Ascot event with plenty of quality races in-between. Catch up with the best of the week's racing here...

Buying a sofa is a tedious business. There are far better things to do of a weekend than trolling slowly around a furniture store, gawping at leather armrests and suede panelling. So when you've made your choice, you want to be out of the sofa shop as quickly as possible.

But there's a snag. You want to know how long the thing is; to be sure it fits into that alcove opposite the wide screen TV. The sofa seller has a quick glance and says, "Dunno, about six foot and a bit." Despite polite requests, he refuses to give you any more accurate dimensions. As much as you may have been taken with the plush cushions and reasonable price tag, this offhand vagueness about an important detail would bring the transaction to a crashing halt before it had begun.

Why is it then, that in addition to wildly inaccurate going descriptions, unreported watering and the machinations of wily trainers, we punters must put up with distances such as 'Two miles and about half a furlong'?

'About'?! Can you picture the announcer in Beijing calling the competitors to their blocks for the start of the 'one hundred and a bit metres'? Or ringing Betfair and asking for: "Approximately fifty quid on the nose"?

Still, if you can't beat them, join them. In keeping with the current levels of customer service in British racing, I give you this week's preview of all the top racing action coming up in the next seven to eight days or thereabouts.

Sunday 3rd August

A dash of English Listed stuff on the Sabbath with a taste of French Group action on the side. Every racecourse should be like Chester, or at least, more of them should be. Enjoy the circular action from the Roodeye with a decent card headed by the six furlong Queensferry Stakes. Meanwhile, down in fairest Hampshire, Newbury hold an equally interesting meeting featuring the Chalice Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half for fillies and mares. And over at Deauville in the heart of the Normandy countryside, you can take in the high calibre Prix Rothschild (formerly Prix d'Astarte) Group One contest for fillies and mares and the Prix de Cabourg, a six-furlong dash for two year olds.

Monday 4th August

Off to picturesque County Cork for a relaxed evening meeting featuring two interesting betting heats. The Give Thanks Stake is a strongly contested 12 furlongs for fillies and mares whilst the Listed Platinum Stakes over a mile offers a tricky little puzzle for punters to solve.

Saturday 9th August

Haydock hold a strong meeting, with the apparent showcase being the Rose of Lancaster Stakes, though this is often a touch below Group Three level in reality and a chance for some animals who've come up short at the top level to earn some black type. The brace of solid looking Class 2 handicaps look to have more potential as lively betting heats.

Newmarket's Sweet Solera Stakes is one of the key Group races for three-year-olds, a contest with a good record for producing Group One contenders. And, to mark the beginning of yet another football season, there is a clutch of footie-themed handicaps to get stuck into.

And lest we forget, it's Shergar Cup time again! Yes, the competition designed as the racing equivalent of the Ryder Cup, for reasons that are not entirely clear, has been through a change of venue (currently Ascot) and several changes of format but it soldiers on. It hasn't caught the public imagination as a racing event, but a card of Class Two Handicaps, ranging from the Shergar Cup Dash over five furlongs to the Shergar Cup Stayers over two miles should give punters plenty to play with. These days it is organised as a contest between four teams of jockeys, representing Britain, Ireland, Europe and the Rest of the World. Field sizes are limited and since the serious contenders tend to be aimed elsewhere at this time of year, it is a chance for unexposed types to grab some prize money. Bearing all that in mind, feel free to go Shergar Cup crazy.