John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Alcarath\u2019s Epsom form catches eye<\/p>\n
There are two heritage handicaps on a bumper nine-race card at Newmarket, including the Suffolk Stakes (14:20<\/a>), a \u2018mini-Cambridgeshire\u2019 run over the same nine furlongs as the big autumn handicap but without the massive field that usually lines up for that contest.<\/p>\n Towards the foot of the weights, Alan King’s lightly-raced four-year-old Alcarath<\/a> takes the eye, getting in on a BHA mark of 89 which makes him look well treated judged on the form of his win in a novice at Epsom last September. While his winning margin flattered him slightly, he impressed with the way he came clear of the favourite Gamrai who is a progressive gelding himself. In fact, the runner-up made a successful reappearance in the Rosebery Handicap at Kempton, looking potentially smart, and looks the one to beat in the mile and a half handicap later on the card where he\u2019s now racing off a BHA mark of 97. <\/p>\n While Alcarath was a beaten favourite on his handicap debut at Redcar on his final start last year, he looks well worth another chance to show that he\u2019s on a good mark, therefore, heading the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings with the \u2018p\u2019 to indicate he\u2019s open to further improvement.<\/p>\n Rumstar can repeat in Palace House<\/p>\n Last decade Sole Power and Mabs Cross were able to win back-to-back renewals of Newmarket\u2019s Palace House Stakes (14:55<\/a>) and Rumstar<\/a> looks capable of making a bold bid for a repeat success in the Group 3 contest which he won with an improved effort on his reappearance twelve months ago.<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t Rumstar\u2019s first win over five furlongs at Newmarket, either, as he had landed the Cornwallis Stakes there as a two-year-old. He also put up another smart effort later last season which was at least as good, beating the Palace House runner-up She\u2019s Quality on worse terms in another Group 3 at Sandown. While Rumstar didn\u2019t end last season as well as he began it, he had excuses, encountering soft ground at Newbury and then being poorly drawn in the Prix de l\u2019Abbaye which left him with little chance of getting involved.<\/p>\n This is a strong renewal of the Palace House, with last year\u2019s Nunthorpe (in which Rumstar was fifth) and Abbaye winner Asfoora also in the field, but she looks vulnerable under a 7 lb penalty and the race-fit Quinault, third in the Abernant Stakes here last time, could be Rumstar\u2019s biggest threat. As well as heading the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings, Rumstar\u2019s stable is in form with Jonathan Portman having the ‘Hot Trainer<\/a>‘ flag.<\/p>\n Godolphin going for another 2000 Guineas win<\/p>\n Aidan O\u2019Brien has trained a record ten winners of the 2000 Guineas (15:35<\/a>), but his last success came in 2019 with Magna Grecia who was Ballydoyle\u2019s third winner on the bounce. Since then, Charlie Appleby, who has the \u2018Hot Trainer\u2019 flag, has become the dominant force in the first of the classics, winning three of the last four renewals thanks to Coroebus, Notable Speech and Ruling Court.<\/p>\n Appleby is represented by two leading contenders this year in Distant Storm<\/a> and King\u2019s Trail, both progressive colts, with preference for the former who will be bidding to provide William Buick with a third consecutive win in the race. Distant Storm\u2019s two wins last year came on the two different Newmarket courses, and he looked potentially out of the top drawer in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes last September, producing a telling turn of foot to quicken clear and win by just under five lengths.<\/p>\n Distant Storm couldn\u2019t reproduce the same burst in the Dewhurst Stakes later in the autumn but still ran very well in third behind the ill-fated Gewan and Gstaad who is O\u2019Brien\u2019s sole Guineas representative this year. However, he remains a top prospect with the step up to a mile expected to suit. Gstaad looks one of his main threats again, though unbeaten Royal Lodge Stakes winner Bow Echo could make it a one-two for sons of Night of Thunder who was a 2000 Guineas winner himself.<\/p>\n Safer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Saturday. Alcarath\u2019s Epsom form catches eye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-428353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}