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Racing Handsome Dude looks amazing at Ripon

IT IS Ripon’s big racing day of the year tomorrow with the Great St Willfrid Handicap on a hugely competitive card at the garden track, but for the sake of the nap I am going to play in the consolation event which is due off at 2.05.

Sometimes it is hard to tell where the pace is going to come from in these big field handicaps and like most punters I like to have a horse on either side of the track as the field normally splits in two.

However, I am really sweet on the claims of HANDSOME DUDE, pulled out of a contest at Haydock Park last week because the ground was way too fast.

Set to carry the second top-weight here, the six-year-old has only been very lightly raced this season, but showed that the fire still burns bright when winning on the all-weather at Southwell before finding seven furlongs at Thirsk too far last time out.

He is back down to that last winning mark here, arrives at the track fresher than most of his rivals and showed fair course and distance form last August when beaten just over three lengths in arguably a slightly better race than this. I make the likes of Dark Shot, outsider Boundsy and Hee Haw the biggest dangers.

The feature event itself, due off at 3.15, has plenty of strength in depth and I shall be having an each-way play on GROWL at around the 8/1 marker.

This veteran has been running well in all the top handicaps this season and looks dangerously well-weighted here off a mark of just 99.

It is worth remembering that it was only last year that he was far from disgraced in the Haydock Park Sprint Cup and several Group Two affairs as well. 

Last year’s third home Shanghai Glory along with the enigmatic Brian The Snail are the two biggest dangers in my book.

Over at Newbury the big event is the Group Two Hungerford Stakes over the specialist trip of seven furlongs and there should just about be a little bit of dig in the ground following all the recent rain for LIBRISA BREEZE.

Dean Ivory has been waiting for the ground to ease for his six-year-old and he gets the vote over the smart three-year-old Gustav Klimt from the all-conquering Aidan O’Brien yard and Lennox Stakes hero Sir Dancealot.

The Geoffrey Freer Stakes at 2.25 looks a hugely open affair and Godolphin could hold the answer to this with the highly progressive Hamada and WALTON STREET (nb) set to line up.

I actually prefer the latter following his running on third in the Duke of Edinburgh Handicap at Royal Ascot. If he runs well here then the Melbourne Cup could be on the agenda such is the esteem with which he is held and at 8/1 he looks like a really knocking each-way wager here.

The big seven furlong handicap at 3.00 looks wide open and on faster ground Charles Molson would have been the call, but the recent rains have pulled me in the direction of FOX TROTTER who not for the first time in his career simply didn’t see out the yardage over a mile at Chepstow last time out.

At Newmarket the race reserved for grey horses only at 3.20 may go to the still unexposed GLENN COCO, while I suspect Staxton will be vulnerable off his new mark in the big six furlong handicap at 2.45 so the vote goes to BUFFER ZONE.

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