John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the racing front on Wednesday.
Three points of interest
Annsam bidding for another Boyne Cup at Ludlow
The most valuable contest on Ludlow’s card is the Boyne Cup (15:45), a three-mile handicap chase worth over £9,500 to the winner. This was won two years ago by Annsam, ridden by Adam Wedge for Evan Williams, and it’s a victory they may well be able to repeat in this year’s renewal against four rivals. Best on right-handed tracks as he tends to jump that way, Annsam jumped and travelled well under top weight of 12-2 before winning with something in hand in 2023, and the fourth on that occasion, Good Boy Bobby, is another in this year’s field.
Annsam missed the whole of last season and has had mixed fortunes this term, including when said to have had an irregular heartbeat when pulled up at Ascot in February. But despite having risks attached, he has dropped to a mark 5 lb below the one he won from two years ago and ran creditably in a veterans’ handicap at Exeter last time.
The trip was on the sharp side for him at Exeter, where he came out best at the weights in finishing third of four to the The Widdow Maker, and the return to three miles here will suit. He can carry top weight to victory again and get the better of novice Destroytheevidence who looks the chief threat.
Tuco can make it four in a row
Tuco Salamanca showed just modest form in three runs last autumn, but he hasn’t looked back since undergoing wind surgery over the winter and has won all three of his starts on the all-weather this year, making into a fairly useful handicapper.
He got off the mark at Kempton in clear-cut fashion in a maiden at Kempton in February, followed up with a narrow success on his handicap debut at Wolverhampton next time and then completed his hat-trick with plenty to spare at Newcastle last Saturday, quickening to lead over a furlong out and just having to be pushed out to land the odds by two lengths from Saxonia. Tuco Salamanca earned the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag for that win and, clearly a most progressive three-year-old, he can defy a 6 lb penalty and make it four wins in the opening contest at Southwell (16:55).
Tuco Salamanca will therefore be going for a win at a fourth different all-weather venue this year but his trainer Ollie Sangster has had more runners at Southwell than any other track and more winners too, gaining a seventh win there last month where he has a 19% strike rate.
Win Me Over to confirm considerable debut promise
Coming from Ballydoyle, it almost goes without saying Win Me Over is a well-bred filly and she certainly takes the eye on pedigree, being a daughter of Kingman and a full sister to top-class miler Palace Pier.
Unraced at two, she made her debut in a twenty-runner field of maiden fillies at the Curragh last month over seven furlongs and shaped very well in taking fourth behind the Dermot Weld-trained winner Bint Queen Kindly who was all the rage in the betting. Racing prominently, Win Me Over ran on late after being switched two furlongs out and earned the ‘Horse In Focus’ for that very promising effort, as well as the Timeform ‘large P’ symbol indicating above-average improvement is expected next time.
Weld fields likely main danger Deressa but Win Me Over promises to be suited by the stiffer test provided by the extra couple of furlongs of Gowran’s fillies’ maiden (17:10) and is expected to open her account here.
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