Timeform Daily: Totesport.com Musselburgh Gold Cup (class 4)

General / Timeform / 23 March 2008 / Leave a Comment

Feature race at Musselburgh broken down by leading ratings organisation

Sunday is the second day of the new turf season on the Flat with Musselburgh staging a seven-race card, which includes the Totesport.com Musselburgh Gold Cup over 1m 6f.

With quite a valuable prize on offer for the grade, a 14-strong field has been attracted, and they are headed by Sadler's Kingdom. Richard Fahey's four-year-old gelding was unraced as a juvenile but improved markedly throughout his first season last year, going up a total of 30 lb in the weights as a result of four handicap victories. He was only mid-field in the Irish Cesarewitch on his final start but this isn't as competitive and he still looks fairly treated.

One that is a potential blot on the handicap is Peter Bowen's Souffleur, who hasn't been seen on the Flat for over 18 months but has developed into a leading novice hurdler in the 2007/08 National Hunt season. Successful twice for Michael Bell a couple of years ago, Souffleur is still totally unexposed in this sphere, though it is a concern that he shaped as if amiss on his last outing over timber.

Cybersnow has some fairly useful maiden form in the book and made an encouraging return from nine months off when runner-up at Wolverhampton earlier this month, beaten two-and-a-quarter lengths by Wannabe Free and pulling well clear of the remainder. There's a chance he'll show more now handicapped.

Pass The Port has been consistent on all-weather over the winter and has claims if transferring that form across on his first turf outing since October 2006, while similar comments apply to the lightly-raced Clear Reef, who has been progressive on fibresand of late.

Gordonsville took a while to lose his maiden tag but did so easily at Wolverhampton in October and has since left Andrew Balding's yard for 32,000 guineas. However, that form hasn't stood up since and his mark looks stiff enough.

Los Nadis and Smuggler's Bay are others that have had successful campaigns over hurdles.