Ransom worthy of Note in Haydock feature

The Shergar Cup is the highest profile British horse racing meeting on Saturday 11 August 2012 but the best races are taking place away from Ascot at Haydock and Newmarket.

Haydock stages the Rose of Lancaster Stakes, a Group Three contest for three-year-olds and older over 10 and a half furlongs. Even though there is black type up for grabs, connections have declared only five runners. However, one could make a case for four of them - the exception being Self Employed - leaving the Merseyside course victorious.

Jet Away is likely to go off the Rose of Lancaster Stakes favourite, probably at around the 7-4 mark, but it is the kind of race in which it may be worth chancing Ransom Note, who has been struggling to make a much of an impression in Group One and Group Two contests over the past 12 months.

Very smart on his day, the make up of the Rose of Lancaster Stakes field should present an opportunity for Ransom Note to dictate affairs, which is what he did when he took out a Group Two race over a mile at Newmarket last September.

There is no obvious pace in the Rose of Lancaster Stakes so Ransom Note is likely to get an easy lead. If Ryan Moore, who is booked to ride the five-year-old son of Red Ransom for the first time, can pinch some cheap sectionals and settle his mount at the front of the pack, the others will have a difficult task going past him down the straight.

Ransom Note`s best runs have occurred on going that was good or firmer and the Charles Hills-trained entire is likely to get ground conditions to suit his action at Haydock.

Without a win in his last five outings, beating home a total of only 11 runners in those races, Ransom Note is not one for the life savings but he could pop up at a value price given the way that the Rose of Lancaster Stakes may be run.

The Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket, a Group Three contest for two-year-old fillies over seven furlongs, is the other high-quality race away from the Shergar Cup at Ascot.

Half of the eight juveniles declared are unbeaten but the pick of them appears to be Sky Lantern, who represents the bang-in-form team of Richard Hannon and Richard Hughes.

Sky Lantern trotted up on debut, cantering away to beat Cruck Realta by three and a half lengths over Goodwood`s six-furlong course. The runner-up has gone on to win a couple of events and the third home has triumphed also.

Hannon decided to take Sky Lantern over the Irish Sea for her second start. She lined up in a six-furlong contest at Naas and was value for more than her half-length winning margin over subsequent Group Three runner-up True Verdict.

Sky Lantern comes up against some promising fillies in the Sweet Solera Stakes, particularly Certify from Godolphin, but her touch of class combined with her extra racecourse experience should be sufficient to get her home first.

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10/08/2012     © Frixo 2024