Sky Sports Racing’s Kevin Blake reveals a trio of picks as York’s Ebor Festival concludes with yet another wildly-competitive card on day four on Saturday.
York have been unlucky with the weather this week, and the softening ground has created some extra challenges, but all being well we can hopefully finish the week on a high.
The Sky Bet Strensall Stakes(1:50) is the first race of interest, and one that looks overpriced is the Hamad Al Jehani-trained Archivist. Long-term readers may recall that I put him up as my selection in the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot and while it didn’t work out for him on the day, he gained compensation on his very next start when overcoming what was considered a near impossible draw of 20 in the Golden Mile at Glorious Goodwood.
Not only did he overcome his draw, he did it with a bit to spare and that performance signalled his readiness to be competitive at stakes level. This course and distance should suit him well and any ease in the ground shouldn’t be overly inconvenient for him. He is drawn a little wider than ideal, but that is bearable given his price is so big. A big run from him wouldn’t at all surprise.
The Sky Bet Constantine Handicap(4:10) is another extremely tough sprint handicap, but I’m game to have a swing at the Andrew Balding-trained Dance In The Storm. The manner in which the betting markets have been so positive about her in her four starts this season has strongly suggested that she is considered better than a handicapper.
While she has won two of her four starts over seven furlongs this season, she has very much been shaping as though she is worth a try at this shorter trip. She has a career-high mark to overcome, but this different distance could well unlock notable further improvement. She is a really interesting contender and warrants support.
The final selection of the week comes in the concluding Sky Bet Dav Reid Finale Handicap (5:20), and it is the Ger Lyons-trained Diego El Queso. The four-year-old has a progressive profile, winning a handicap at Leopardstown in good style back in April prior to having an absence of 12 weeks that suggests he may have had a hold up.
He returned to action with a tremendous run to finish second to Thread Of Gold in a valuable handicap back at Leopardstown and that form has been well advertised by the winner since then. He was well fancied for a similar race to this at Glorious Goodwood, but the race went wrong for him, yet he still managed to catch the eye in finishing sixth.
He is capable of better than he was able to show there and with both this course and distance and the ease in the ground all promising to suit him, he can be expected to make a bold bid for compensation.