Racing Chat - Monday May 1st

[BillyHills]

 

145 Kempton

American Gigolo NAP 6/5 Bet365
Charlie Mann saddles his 5yo American Gigolo here and will find this a lot easier than taking on Pingshou, as he did at Aintree in Grade 1 company last time out. He was still in with some sort of chance turning for home and only just finished behind the likes of Moon Racer. This is obviously easier and will take all the beating.

[Trotter]

First Group One race of the season in Europe today with the Prix Ganay at St Cloud at 3.00

Favourite is Fabre's Cloth of Stars, a son of Sea The Stars, who has won both prep races this season including the traditional 'trial' for this, the group 2 Prix D'Harcourt. He's won group 2 and 3 races but failed to win in three previous attempts at the top level and he had to be driven to narrowly win group 2 last time. He's race fit and in form so is probably the right favourite though might be vulnerable if there is a proper group one horse in the field

Speaking of which we have Hawkbill who won the Eclipse last year having come up through handicap, listed and group 3 wins. Hasn't been in the same form since and the fear is that he just had a golden few months and he'll never reach those heights again

Zarak has had 7 runs in group races and only managed one win in a group 3

Potemkin is a German raider who won a group 2 in France last year and has several group wins in Germany and Italy. He's a 6yo making his seasonal debut and you'd expect he might need the run even tho' he won first time out last year. That was a German group 3 race and this should be a lot tougher

Guignol is another German horse who was the surprise winner of a group one at Munich last year. He';s a front runner and perhaps slipped the field at Munich and the race fell inti his hands. Unlikely to be good enough today

Erupt usually runs over further and makes his seasonal debut ..........things might happen too quickly for him today. Similar comments apply to Silverware

Maniaco is a stable-mate of the favourite and finished 3rd to him in the D'Harcourt. Cloth of Stars had already had a run prior to that and I think there's a fair chance he could get a lot closer today, although like a few of these he looks 12 furlongs would be a more suitable trip. He's unexposed with just 6 career runs

 

Probably the safest bet would be Cloth of Stars as he's race fit, in form and could be a group one horse in the making whereas some of the more exposed horses with group one wins to their names are older and might need a run on seasonal debuts

I'm tempted by the bigger priced unexposed Maniaco ..........with Guignol expected to force the pab=ce it should be run at a decent clip and with some cut in the ground he should be running on late.

Maniaco - EW at 20/1 bog wm hill

 

Of course with a field of 8 there's bound to be a non runner and my selection will finish 3rd.............