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Friday 15 May 2015

Back on Track



Hoping to get back on track today and find a winner.

2.55 Newbury - This sees a decent field line up over the 6f. Clear Spring won a 4 runner Class 2 Conditions Stakes at Haydock last Saturday and consequently has to carry a 6lb penalty. He was up against Intibaah and Louis The Pious over whom he held a fitness advantage on Soft ground, the other runner Invincible Ridge was 14lb wrong with Clear Spring at the weights, so he faces a  tough task today with 6lb penalty. Clear Spring prior to that race had a run a good race to finish 5th behind Pipers Note at Ripon, where he was 2 lengths behind Algar Lad who won a Class 2 Handicap at York earlier this week.
Fast Track and Golden Steps head the market today and they both return from their winter breaks. The form that entitles them to be were they are in the betting is their race at Newmarket last July when they finished 1st and 5th over 6f on Good to Firm in a time of 1m 11.49s. Eastern Impact was a running on second that day beaten a nose and he was giving Fast Track and Golden Steps 9lb and 2lbs respectively.
Eastern Impact ran again at Newmarket a week last Sunday in another Class 2 Handicap beating the progressive Huntsmans Close, finishing in 4th was Accession who runs today and he was receiving 3lbs if you take Jack Garrity's claim into account. However the winning time of that race was 1m 9.82s ie 1.67s faster, the winning distances being a shd, 1 length, 1 length. Accession was drawn 2 of 22 on the outside, he broke well and had to come across the field in order to get a prominent position which he held throughout the race. The going was probably faster than ideal (9.2 on the going stick) and he was reverting back to 6f, having run predominantly over 7f, however he recorded a career high top speed figure of 85. 
He is 2-3 at Newbury, he is 3-11 in fields between 6 and 11 runners and 2-4 when running between 8 and 14 days since last run. There are 10 runners and 12 days since his last run.
The stalls are positioned on the stands side rail and he is drawn 9. Chilworth Icon is drawn 10 and he tends to start slowly and generally be held up so Accession should get the rail if his jockey chooses to use it. The going at Newbury is officially Good (6.3 on the going stick) so it should suit him better than at Newmarket.
On the line through Eastern Impact he should have the beating of Fast Track and Golden Steps and with the fitness and the rail draw he is the value bet at 5/1 and he will need to win well in order to get a rating high enough to get into the Wokingham which the stable would like to get into if possible.
Of the others Eternitys Gate has room for improvement although he is running from 4lb out of the handicap and Magnus Maximus winner of the Tattersalls Million in 2013 has blinkers applied for the first time in an effort to rekindle his enthusiasm.