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Timeform Daily View | Thursday preview and tips
We provide an overview of the key things to note on the racing front on Thursday afternoon.
Three points of interest
Third time lucky for Currawood?
All seven races at Naas are for two-year-olds and the six-furlong maiden for colts and geldings (14:55) looks an excellent opportunity for Paddy Twomey’s Currawood to get off the mark. He has been placed in what must be two of the hottest two-year-old maidens at the Curragh this summer and the form of those races makes him very much the one to beat here for all that expensive Ballydoyle newcomer Mississppi River, who’s out of Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Cursory Glance, makes plenty of appeal on paper.
Making his debut in the same maiden that City of Troy had won the year before, Currawood shaped promisingly in picking his way through the field to finish third behind Hazdann, the only runner in the line-up with some prior experience. That form could hardly have worked out any better, with runner-up Green Impact going on to win a Group 2 contest at Leopardstown on Saturday, the fifth Black Forza winning the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood and the sixth Apples And Bananas winning a listed race at Deauville. Fourth-placed Bernard Shaw also won next time out before finishing third behind Green Impact at Leopardstown.
Three weeks later, Currawood went one place better when splitting the Ballydoyle pair The Lion In Winter and Ides of March. They too have gone on to win in pattern company, The Lion In Winter putting up a smart performance in the Acomb Stakes at York and Ides of March landing the odds in very taking fashion in the Round Tower Stakes back at the Curragh. Currawood is entitled to make an impact in better company himself in due course but, dropping back to six furlongs for the first time, he sets a high standard here 10 lb clear in the Timeform ratings.
Eternal Sunshine in hot form
Jim Goldie and Paul Mulrennan have been the most successful trainer and jockey respectively at Ayr over the last five seasons and the pair have a good chance of winning both divisions of the five-furlong handicap on the opening day of the track’s big Flat meeting of the year. Water of Leith, who shaped nicely when third at Doncaster last week, looks of serious interest in division one (14:42), while half an hour later Eternal Sunshine bids to extend a terrific run of form in division two (15:12).
Of her last six starts, Eternal Sunshine has won four of them, including a couple of races over six furlongs at Ayr in July, while she’s been beaten narrowly on the other two occasions. Eternal Sunshine’s latest success came over five furlongs at Musselburgh last month and she went close to following up over the same course and distance on Sunday when going down by a head to the well-treated Zarzyni who was dropping in grade.
From a stable whose sprinters in particular this year have been thriving – most notably Jordan Electrics and last Saturday’s Portland winner American Affair – Eternal Sunshine can gain her own fifth win of the year running from the same mark as her near-miss on Sunday and heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings by 2 lb.
Easier task for Oviedo
The most valuable contest on Ayr’s card is the Kilkerran Handicap over a mile and a quarter (15:42) where the weights are headed by Ed Bethell’s smart gelding Oviedo. His season is yet to get going but he has had only three runs this term and this represents a drop in grade after contesting the Huxley Stakes at Chester and two competitive handicaps at York so far this season. He needed the run at Chester and finished down the field in both races at York but at the Ebor meeting last time Oviedo shaped with much more encouragement than the result suggests in finishing eleventh behind Sir Busker.
Oviedo had some good form to his name as a three-year-old last year, including when beating older rivals in the Zetland Gold Cup at Redcar and running a cracker to dead-heat for fourth behind Astro King in the Cambridgeshire on his final start last season, shaping better than the distance beaten there too and faring best of those who didn’t race in the stand-side group.
Oviedo is entered in the Cambridgeshire again on Saturday week and has a good chance of going there in winning form as he has been eased in the weights since his last run and heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings here by 1 lb. He’s also equipped with both a visor and tongue tie for the first time.
Tip of the Day
Never Better – 16:48 Ayr
Flags: Hot Trainer, Horse In Focus, Top-Rated
Roger Varian’s unexposed three-year-old Never Better looks interesting for his in-form stable in the mile handicap at Ayr. Making his debut at Kempton in February, Never Better had three runs on the all-weather early in the year, winning a novice back at Kempton on his second start when clearly all the sharper for his debut. Never Better then had a break of over four months and was gelded in the meantime before shaping well on his handicap/turf debut at Newbury at the end of August.
Despite conceding both fitness and experience to the pair who beat him, Never Better was beaten less than a length into third behind Devoirs Choice and Hale End after holding every chance in the final furlong. With plenty of physical scope and boasting a really good pedigree too – he’s from the family of Derby winner Auguste Rodin – Never Better heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings by 1 lb and appeals as the type to progress further.
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