Desert Dreamer, so impressive when making a winning debut under Hollie Doyle at Newmarket last month, in a fast-run race which has yielded several subsequent winners, is an exciting declaration for the seven-runner Novice Stakes over five furlongs of ‘good to soft’ Ascot ground this afternoon; on my time-handicap this Stuart Williams-trained Oasis Dream is, along with Navello, the best two-year-old we’ve seen to date and a 7lbs penalty is unlikely to prevent a follow-up for Andrea Atzeni’s mount.
Although I’m loathe to become seriously involved with two-year-olds before the end of May we’ve struck for readers/punters in every juvenile race profiled; the last being Navello, also nothing short of sensational when storming clear in the ‘Lily Agnes’ at Chester, Wednesday. The ‘National’ at Sandown is the next target, according to young aspiring trainer George Boughey.
Will Desert Dreamer go off the short-priced favourite we reckon she should be?
Given the penalty and two rivals which shaped well to be second first time out, Night Arc and Robasta, from high-profile specialist two-year-old yards of Richard Hannon and Andrew Balding, we might just get surprise odds; nowadays with such a colossal world-wide market bumping up turnover it’s impossible to forecast.
Someone told me a few weeks ago Premier League soccer players are ‘betting their heads off’ and so, in addition to having extremely expensive tattoos and fancy hair-do’s, they are helping serious-minded punters in unexpected scenarios. Plenty of professionals are having the time of their lives.
Just be patient and await chances like Desert Dreamer and Raadobargh, clear ‘best-in’ for a Novice Stakes over a mile of ‘good to soft’ Thirsk tonight.
Roger Varian’s powerful Newmarket yard is now beginning to gain momentum and Leicester winner Raadobargh is the product of fastidious scrutiny in the early hours of this morning with silence deafening; it always suited me.
As a ten-year-old I was totally deaf, having suffered a mastoid condition in my early years, when sitting my ‘eleven-plus’ examination with no expectations from anyone, anywhere; apparently my essay and maths won the day and one passed with flying colours. I watch soccer and horse-races with a ‘mute’ button on!
To all intents and purposes these next few years will see me ‘dead ‘n buried’ as they say but I did it my way and would do it all again with few refinements.
Stick with this column, you can’t go wrong. Excuse my rambling!
Selections, Ascot, 3.05 Desert Dreamer; Hexham, 4.30 Tara Mill; Thirsk, 7.35 Raadobarg
Jeffrey Ross, horse-racing correspondent for WMN since 1983 when winning the most prestigious racing journalist award, Sporting Life Naps Table, before winning it a record number of six times collectively in the Racing Post, the current ‘trade’ paper, including 2019