Friday gives us seven meetings and twenty six picks, which sounds like a scattergun until you look closer. The shape of the day is clear enough. Sandown and Chester carry the bulk of the work, the Irish evening cards at Fairyhouse and Gowran Park give us the prices, and there’s a single, deliberate swing at Market Rasen.
Chester is where the fun starts. Be Frank opens the card at 1:30 and he’s the one we keep coming back to. His finishing positions undersell him badly. He stays on late every time and keeps bumping into horses that go and win next time out. Over Chester’s seven furlongs, 23.0 each way is a big price for a horse running that well. Later on the same card, Tactical Blitz has the 4:55 set up for him. A sharp six furlongs from a good gate is exactly what his record says he wants, the latest run is easily forgiven, and he won only three starts back.
Sandown is the busiest card of the day for us, six picks topped by Boyfriend in the 3:23, our strongest each way position of the afternoon. Lohoobb in the 4:35 is the one to be with at a shorter price. He’s better than his recent placings suggest, those defeats have been well franked since, and his times keep improving. Off a falling mark, a Class 5 like this is very winnable.
Across the water, the evening belongs to Gowran Park and Fairyhouse. Son Of Beauty in the 6:33 at Gowran has the weights falling his way just as he hits peak form, having produced a career best last time with a powerful finish that suggested plenty left in the tank. At Fairyhouse, Dandy Land gets all the right help in the 5:37. W J Lee and the McCreery yard both hold strong records at the track, and his recent runs are worth more than they look on paper. A mark of 54 underestimates him.
Yesterday gave us a winner from a small book, Neyva’s Angel obliging at 2.75 to keep the week ticking over nicely.
It’s a day to spread the stakes sensibly rather than pile in anywhere, but if Be Frank runs his race at Chester, Friday could pay for the weekend.