Newmarket news and tips from our ‘Man at HQ’

At 3.20pm on Saturday all eyes will be on the Curragh to watch the Irish 2000 Guineas, where the John Gosden trained Kingman is the hot favourite. Far be it from me to start tipping you 4/6 shots but any followers of this blog will know how much I rate him, and if his recent exploits on the gallops are anything to go by, then we can be more than hopeful of him bringing the prize back to Newmarket.

Earlier in the day in the 1.50 at Goodwood, Gosden runs Nabucco, although he hasn’t raced for over 200 days, this lightly raced five-year old is working the house down.  Also one of the best judges from the yard told me that he is more than confident that he can make up into a solid group horse this year. The ground won’t be a problem so he should totally outclass his rivals.

William Haggas is one of the finest trainers in town, and I made it my business to follow his gallopers over the past week.  I’ve spotted two well handicapped horses and luckily for us they both run today.  Penny Drops in the 2.55 at Goodwood, she took her time to get her head in front after a string of placed efforts simply because she was a weak filly and it’s only this spring that she has strengthened up.  If there is any juice in the ground it won’t be a problem for her and the step up in trip will definitely bring out more improvement.

The Silver Bowel Stakes (3.45 Haydock) is always an ultra-competitive race but Haggas could well have the answer in Bilimbi. He is such a well-balanced individual and he always stands out in the string.  I saw him on the Limekilns recently with today’s jockey Ryan Moore on board, make no mistake he is a classy animal and is extremely well handicapped so with the ground and the draw in his favour, he could take this  on the road to better things.

Justineo has been a bit of a revelation since Roger Varian decided to drop him down in trip last year, and mark my words; there is a big race or two to be won with him. On his seasonal reappearance he made the running in the Palace House where his jockey was content to set insane fractions reaching 43mph after the first furlong so there is no way he would have lasted home. The fact that he was eventually only beaten two lengths made me sit up and take note.  Since then he has thrived, I saw him blast up the Al Bahatri during the week and he flew.  Not only that, the shrewdies from the yard  have been talking him up big time and think he could be a King Stand type,  so at 20/1 he is the each way bet of the week.