Summer Festivals Betting Guide

Fri, Sep 3, 2010

Saturday 4^th September

3.35 Haydock – Betfred Sprint Cup (Group 1)

Only 2 winners aged 6yo or older in the races history
19 of the last 20 had already won over 6f or further
8 of the last 10 winners achieved a top 3 finish last time out
8 of the last 10 winners came from the first 6 in the betting
6 of the last 10 winners had already won at Group 3 level or better
Fillies have won 5 of the last 16 renewals
Key races – Temple Stakes, Golden Jubilee & Nunthorpe Stakes
Trainers to follow with runners – Barry Hills & Roger Charlton

With horses aged 6 or older having a very low strike rate in this race, we should view Barney McGrew, Borderlescott, Fullandby, Genki, Markab, Prime Defender and last year’s winner Regal Parade with a fair degree of scepticism. Speaking of Regal Parade, it also needs pointing out that no horse since Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s Be Friendly back in 1966 and 1967 has won the Sprint Cup in successive years. After factoring in all of the other trends quite boringly, STARSPANGLEDBANNER is the only horse remaining. After winning the 6f Golden Jubilee and July Cup, I always thought he was vulnerable in the Nunthorpe and so it proved although as it was he ran better than expected to finish runner-up to the 100/1 shot Sole Power. Back over 6f on Saturday will be much more his bag and my spies tell me that he did a very impressive piece of work on Wednesday in preparation for this race. I also understand that the ground is drying out by the day at Haydock and with no rain forecast he should pretty much get an ideal racing surface. Currently around the 2/1 mark he may not be everyone’s cup of tea in such a competitive line up so the trends are suggesting Doncaster Rover may be a worthy opponent. The gelding’s main failure is that he is yet to win at Group level but he did win the Listed Hopeful Stakes on his latest start so he is coming into the race in top form. Yes, he has plenty to find with the top rated horses in the race but shocks are not uncommon in the Sprint Cup so the 25s currently on offer from Ladbrokes may him a viable alternative. I have already said that Regal Parade has a couple of big negatives to overcome but aside from that he fits in well with all of the other trends so probably deserves a place on the shortlist but at around 3/1 there is nothing to be gained by tipping him. So for my final selection, I am going to take a punt on Serious Attitude as fillies have a respectable record here. On her penultimate start in the Golden Jubilee she was finishing her race off nicely suggesting that the engine was still there and at the death was less than 5L behind the O’Brien horse. She was disappointing in the July Cup but she is relatively lightly raced and at 66/1 currently with Boylesports she might be worth taking an each-way punt.