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Timeform Daily View | Monday preview and tips
Timeform provide an overview of the key things to note ahead of Monday's action while the tip of the day runs at Ayr.
Three points of interest
Sound of Iona out to maintain hot streak for dam’s offspring
Jim Goldie has had eight winners so far in July and hasn’t had to travel too far for those successes which have all come at Scottish courses, most of them at his local tracks of Ayr and Hamilton. As well as training, Goldie is also a breeder and three of the yard’s winners this month have all been offspring out of his broodmare Eternal Instinct. She was a three-time winner for Goldie herself and a half-sister to the yard’s very smart sprinter Jack Dexter.
Early this year, Eternal Instinct’s five-year-old son Bonito Cavalo went on a winning spree at Newcastle, running up a five-timer by early-February and adding a sixth win there in March. Last week, two more of Eternal Instinct’s foals, Eternal Sunshine and Rory, won races on consecutive days at Ayr and Musselburgh, with the thriving four-year-old filly Eternal Sunshine completing a hat-trick this summer.
Now it’s the turn again of their elder sister Sound of Iona to keep the family’s hot streak going. She had plummeted in the weights before returning to winning form when making all at Ayr a fortnight ago, registering her first success since September 2022. Still very well treated on her old form from a BHA mark of just 52, Sound of Iona merits respect back over the same course and distance, though top weight Biplane has been knocking on the door lately and won’t make things easy for her.
Pedigree points to Prescott handicap debutant up in trip
Trained by the in-form Sir Mark Prescott for Kirsten Rausing, Heat of Passion takes the eye in Southwell’s eleven-furlong handicap for three-year-olds. She’s had a typical preparation for handicaps for one from her stable, having had three runs on the all-weather over the winter at not much further than a mile. Her best effort came on her latest outing at Wolverhampton in February when keeping on to finish third behind odds-on favourite Crimson Coronet in a race which has thrown up some subsequent winners.
A daughter of Dubawi, Heat of Passion is bred to be suited by middle distances as many from her stable are. She’s a half-sister to useful four-year-old Davideo who gained his latest win for Ralph Beckett in a mile and a half handicap at Kempton in May. But her most notable half-brothers were Glorious Forever and Time Warp who became top performers in Hong Kong where they won consecutive editions of the Hong Kong Cup and both broke the Sha Tin track record for a mile and a quarter.
Time Warp had also begun his career with Prescott and initiated a five-timer when winning his maiden at Southwell as a two-year-old, though that was when the all-weather surface there was fibresand. Whether Heat of Passion lives up to her pedigree by earning some black type herself in due course remains to be seen. She’s some way off that level at present, but her breeding suggests she can at least take advantage of an opening BHA mark of 69.
Harrington and Foley bid to make it four in a row in Galway handicap
The week-long Galway Festival gets underway on Monday evening with their mixed card featuring everything from a two-year-old maiden to a four-year-old novice hurdle. Jessica Harrington has representatives in both those races but it’s her recent record in the mile and a half handicap for three-year-olds which is particularly striking. Harrington has sent out the winner for each of the last three seasons, with Citronnade, Irish Lullaby and, in 2023, Youcrackmeup all being successful under Shane Foley. With a total of 22, Harrington’s stable jockey has ridden more Flat winners than anyone at Galway over the last five seasons.
That makes their representative this year, Cruden, one to note despite having to give weight away all round on his handicap debut. But after just two runs he has plenty of scope for further progress and it may well be that his trainer has put him aside with this race in mind as he hasn’t been seen since winning his maiden at Limerick in mid-May. Confirming his debut promise, Cruden was well on top at the finish as he came clear with the Joseph O’Brien-trained favourite Soul of Spain in soft ground, so the forecast ‘yielding’ going for the start of Galway week won’t be a problem for him.
With nine winners already this month, Cruden’s stable is in good form too, with Foley completing a double on a couple of the yard’s two-year-olds at Leopardstown last week.
Tip of the Day
Stressfree – 16:10 Ayr
Flags: Horse In Focus, Hot Trainer, Sectional Timing, Top Rated
STRESSFREE ran a cracker in a deeper handicap than this at York last time and he can notch a first win of the campaign for in-form David O’Meara and with Danny Tudhope on board for only the second time this season. Stressfree has been placed in his last two runs, in fact, but his York effort was particularly promising as he came from much further back than the pair he pulled clear with. Soon travelling smoothly held up, he was going well when denied a run over two furlongs out but after weaving his way through kept on well to finish third behind Karmology with five lengths back to the fourth horse. A keeping-on second at Doncaster on his penultimate start, Stressfree can get his head in front this time.
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