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Kevin Blake has two tips on Ascot's Victoria Cup card
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Timeless Melody a strong favourite
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Trip set to suit Totally Charming in feature
With the first Classics of the year now behind us, the Flat season is very much up and running. Attention turns to Ascot this Saturday for the Victoria Cup card that always delivers a feast of competitive action on one of the finest stages of horse racing anywhere in the world.
Melody set to enjoy extra stamina test
Ascot, 14:05 - Kev's Tip: Timeless Melody @ 5/2
The Peroni Nastro Azzurro EBF Fillies' Handicap (14:05) brings together a very interesting mix of experienced and less exposed fillies and mares. It is one from the former group that makes most appeal to me in the shape of the William Haggas-trained Timeless Melody.
The four-year-old had two starts for Charlie Appleby last year prior to changing hands for 65,000gns and joining William Haggas.
She made a winning start for her new connections in a seven-furlong novice stakes at Leicester last month despite the trip seeming to be a bare minimum for her, even on testing ground. That she was able to overcome that and grind out victory makes her look well-handicapped off a mark of just 80.
There is obvious scope for her to improve not just for that first run of the season, but particularly so for the greater test of stamina that this mile trip on testing ground at a stiff track will represent.
The promising Adam Farragher claims 3lb off her and the pair look to have an excellent chance of making a winning handicap debut in this contest.
Totally looks a Charming bet over this trip
Ascot, 14:40 - Kev's Tip: Totally Charming, e/w, 6 places @ 7/1
The Peroni Nastro Azzurro Victoria Cup (14:40) is always one of the most fiercely-contested handicaps of the opening months of the turf season and this year's renewal is no different.
The draw tends to play a key role in proceedings and isn't always the easiest to work out prior to the race. At this stage, we can use pace maps to guide us to where to hottest sections of the track are likely to be in pace terms and what is perceived to be the favoured part of the track in terms of ground is likely to reveal itself a bit close to the time.
In times of uncertainty with regard to the draw, there can be comfort in one's fancy having a stall in the middle and that is the case with my selection Totally Charming.
Trained by the excellent George Boughey, the five-year-old was a leading fancy for the Irish Lincoln back in March and looked likely to win when he hit the front just over a furlong out. However, he hit the wall with less than 100 yards to race and weakened back to seventh close home, a finishing position that greatly undersells how well he shaped.
While he has plenty of form over a mile and indeed went close to winning over a mile-and-a-quarter earlier in his career, the most impressive performance of his career came on the only occasion he tried seven furlongs, with him bolting up on testing ground at Doncaster last October.
The return to that trip on testing ground might well prove to be the key to him and with him being just 5lb higher than when gaining that impressive victory at Doncaster, he looks handicapped to go very well.
Billy Loughnane takes 3lb off his back and with his middle draw giving him options, Totally Charming looks to have a very good chance.
Racing... Only Bettor. Watch below.