Sky Sports Racing’s senior analyst Jamie Lynch is back with five selections across meetings from Bath, Fontwell and Saint-Cloud on Friday.
HEARTACHE TONIGHT – 2.45 Saint-Cloud
A fracture to a fetlock joint robbed Wonderful Tonight of a shot at the 2021 Arc, a case of what might have been considering the extreme conditions and her compatibility with them, but at least she already had two Group 1s in the bag to cement her status as a tip-top filly.
It took two attempts for Wonderful Tonight to get off the mark as a juvenile, whereas her half-sister Heartache Tonight went in first time, raising hopes that she may be on a similar trajectory.
Given soft ground was the specialist subject of Wonderful Tonight, it was no surprise that Heartache Tonight was in her element with the testing conditions at ParisLongchamp last October, when favourite for a maiden and doing a passable impression of her illustrious half-sister, keen to get on with things early yet very strong at the finish, looking every inch a pattern performer in the making.
And here she is, starting out in the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre, packed full of promising fillies, but her family and foundation mean she’s the most exciting of them all.
ZACONY REBEL – 2.50 Fontwell
It has been said that success has a simple formula, which is a good way of looking at Zacony Rebel, whose favourite formula so far is Fontwell and fresh: he’s 2/2 at the track, both times off a break.
And here we have a £12k handicap at Fontwell, for which he has been freshened up, smacking of some target training by Toby Lawes, who’s 20% (6/30) at the track.
His October win here was also his chasing debut, really taking to it, and he ran better still at Wetherby next time when third trying to give 9lb to Notlongtillmay, quite the task in hindsight.
He lost his mojo subsequently, but the upshot is he’s slipped in the handicap to 3lb lower than Wetherby and, crucially, he has been given a 3-month break, safe in the knowledge that he goes very well when fresh, and at Fontwell.
There are several sexier horses in the line-up, not least the French recruit Ikarak, and Sandown winner Hudson De Grugy, but none will be at home so much as Zacony Rebel, very much in his comfort zone with these circumstances.
SECRET SQUIRREL – 5.05 Fontwell
For Fontwell on a Friday, this is a well-above-average bumper. All Authorized came to this track with a reputation (odds-on favourite) when overcoming greenness on his debut, and King William Rufus, at Plumpton, was beaten only by Captain Teague, who finished third in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham.
However, Secret Sqirrel is almost a mix of the two, bringing the profile and potential of All Authorized while resting on strong form-lines like King William Rufus.
At Taunton first time out, sent off at 9-2, Secret Squirrel breezed through the race and beat favourite Act Of Authority more comprehensively than Florida Dreams had at Musselburgh, and that one won the Grade 2 bumper at Aintree last Saturday.
He’s only a 4-y-o and, given who he beat and how he beat him at Taunton, the future looks very bright for Secret Squirrel, maybe more on the Flat than over jumps, following on from a few Hughie Morrison bumper graduates.
WHITE LAVENDER – 6.25 Bath
Her start and end to last season is proof positive that White Lavender will be very hard to beat in the listed Lansdown Stakes at Bath.
She started 2022 – and her life with Karl Burke – with a bang, in this very race, a relative outsider that day (at 12-1), but she’ll be a heavy favourite this time around, inspired by what she did on her final start, beating all bar the flying 2-y-o filly The Platinum Queen in the 19-runner Group 1 Prix de Abbaye.
She had the best of the draw at ParisLongchamp, and was 30-1, but it hardly came from out of the blue, cycling up to it all the way through her light campaign, only a dozen races into her career, nothing for a sprinter.
She’s a notch above this lot, albeit not far ahead of another mare who’s coming from a Group 1, Happy Romance having finished a close-up sixth in the Al Quoz, possibly at an advantage here in getting some winter sun.
All the same, White Lavender is in pole position for this, and she has won first time out in both her seasons of racing.
ALL BLUES – 6.55 Bath
John O’Donoghue is the current incumbent of the famous Currabeg Stables, formerly the powerbase for John Oxx, with whom O’Donoghue worked before spending time as head lad to David O’Meara then assistant to Roger Varian.
The primary purpose of boxing to Bath is Lovely Mana in the Lansdown, but it’s the one who’s sharing the shipping, All Blues, who interests me more.
All Blues showed up well in two big-field maidens at the Curragh last October, finishing fourth then sixth, in races won by Aidan O’Brien’s Paddington, mockery-maker of a mark of 97 on his comeback, and Nightcliff, who has held her own in Group 3s this month.
Moving up to a mile will help her, by Fascinating Rock, and the fitting of cheekpieces for her return suggests they mean business, as does the booking of Billy Loughnane, whose 5lb claim means All Blues gets as much as 12lb from standard-setter Milteye, which is a big chunk of change at this level.