The Steward’s Cup has provided a couple of winners of the William Hill St. Wilfred Stakes over the last few years. Growl leads the market here, fourth at Glorious Goodwood with 5/1 still available at the time of writing.
His trainer has an excellent recent record in this race, but he is lumbered with the huge burden of 9st 10lbs here, and has been drawn wide in stall 18 to make the task ever more challenging. He should go close, but I feel like those two factors could be difficult to overcome.
Just three quarters of a length behind and fifth in the Steward’s Cup was SHANGHAI GLORY. He was drawn away from the middle of the course at Goodwood, and badly hampered inside the final two furlongs, so did extremely well to finish where he did.
Growl had much the better passage in to the race, and is now technically 4lb worse-off with Charlie Hills’s sprinter due to the loss of a 7lb claimer, so he has a good chance of reversing the form.
Shanghai Glory remains lightly-raced at the age of four, and this is just his third start of the campaign so is entitled to improve further. The jockey booking of Jamie Spencer is also one to note in these sprint handicaps, and he proved that at Newmarket last night with two winners.
The slight concern is that Shanghai Glory does prefer some cut in the ground. But he is drawn next to the pace, and he won a Listed race on gd-yld at the Curragh to sign off last season.
It won’t be lightning quick out there in any case and his sire, Exceed And Excel, has produced plenty of fast-ground horses. So there’s no reason he can’t perform on “good” ground.
Ripon is a quirky track, and those who tend to like it around here are folly to ignore. That’s why our second selection is last year’s winner NAMEITWHATYOULIKE, who is fancied to bounce back to form on one of his favoured tracks.
His record in this part of Yorkshire reads two wins, five places, from eight starts. An extremely versatile sort, he has dropped to a nice mark of 97, 1lb below his winning mark in this race last year.
His performances this campaign have not been the most inspiring on paper, but they have included runs in Group 2, Group 3 and Listed contests. His previous run in the Class 2 Skybet Dash was a poor one, but he is much better than that, as he showed when he beat Danzeno in a Listed race last September off a mark of 101.
He has most likely been targeted at this again during the season, and is drawn right in among the pace in stall 12. With the booking of a talented 5lb claimer, he looks a great each-way bet at 16/1.
0.75pt each-way Shanghai Glory @8/1, 15:15 Ripon, Saturday (six places, 1/5 odds Skybet)
0.75pt each-way Nameitwhatyoulike @16/1, 15:15 Ripon, Saturday (five places, 1/5 odds Ladbrokes)
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