Best bets for day one of the Cambridgeshire Meeting at Newmarket Thursday 24th September

The Cambridgeshire Meeting at Newmarket takes centre stage the back end of this week, I always feel we are heading in to Autumn when this meeting comes around. Thursday is the first of the three days of horse racing over on the Rowley Mile and we have some good racing to enjoy. Across the three days we have a couple of Group One races in the Cheveley Park Stakes and the Middle Park Stakes along with the famous Cambridgeshire Handicap and a number of Pattern races to look forward to. As well as the usual coverage ITV will be at HQ for the three days covering the bigger races on free to air for the armchair punter, which most of us are at the moment and look likely to remain with the latest phased return of spectators to sporting events “paused” once again!

The meeting gets underway at 1.15 with the mile Rossdales EBF Stallions Maiden Stakes. I noted Godolphin had a couple entered here and the one that stood his ground is Tormona. Second on debut at Sandown behind long odds-on shot Maximal he was a clear second despite greeness. He is by Shamardal out of Tashelka her sixth foal making him a half-brother to winners Tasaday,Tribal Beat and Silver River all of whom were pretty decent. I think he can get off the mark here. Get on at 11-8.  

The Group Three Tattersalls Stakes over 7f at 3.00 has some nice two-year-olds due to line-up. La Barrosa won on debut in a 7f maiden at Ascot in September looking above average. By French 2,000 Guineas/Derby winner Lope De Vega out of Bikini Babe, who was a multiple placed Group performer in her younger days though didn’t really progress, you would expect this one to be a decent two-year-old. He cost 750,000 Guineas at Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1 so someone in team Godolphin saw something they liked about him and from what little we’ve seen they could be proven right. After his win at Ascot Appleby said “The horse had shown some nice bits of work at home recently and we were confident the conditions would suit him. He seems to have a lot of natural pace and I don’t see any reason to step him in trip yet, although his pedigree suggests in time he will get further. He doesn’t have any lofty entries at this stage, but he might be one to look towards the Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket.” He is here and I am on at a very skinny 4-5 best odds guaranteed.  

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