Top Art stakes provides a miniature field

Another small field at Newmarket, this time for the $75,000 Top Art cap stakes with only four facing the judge over today’s extended 10 furlongs on the fast dirt track. Maybe the local trainers are acting a bit more traditional lately, sticking to the Rowley mile turf course that has graced this corner of Suffolk, for the last few centuries. Whatever the reason, there seems to have been a small turnout for some pretty good races lately. Anyway, let’s see if we can sort out the winner from these four, and go home with a few quid in our pockets at the same time.

First up is Hate the drake, a lightly raced 3yo son of Good journey out of Memory Jessie (Rahy x Trempolino). 501farm’s striking colt ran twice at two, running nice races without troubling the judge but his owner must be pleased with the step up the horse has made since turning three. A facile maiden win, was followed by a couple of decent allowance wins which encouraged his connections to step up and attempt the GIII Hollywood nights classic, which resulted in a very encouraging fourth place. The colt has responded well to running his last three stakes races with the Athens sun on his back finishing on the board in all three with some respectable speeds over a variety of distances from a mile to a mile and a half and provided he doesn’t resent being shipped to a dull autumnal Newmarket he should go well here. A Holohan gets the leg up here, and is a capable pilot round here who should be able to settle the horse even in this small field. He’s the outsider of the field, but at only 7/2, and has a live chance here of increasing his $107,000 lifetime earnings by a significant amount.

Next comes Danamazing(IRE) from stall 2, a very consistent son of Theatrical(IRE) out of he-mare Mister turf (Danehill x Apalachee). Some would have questioned the use of this particular G grade horse to breed from, but owner-breeder NSW obviously saw something which has been totally vindicated by the $220,000 the horse has picked up so far. While all his five wins have come below this level, with four allowance wins, he has placed in several stakes races, running impressive times. Dropped back into allowance level for the last four runs, he has still failed to get his head in front, but with the small field this could actually be easier than some of the allowances he’s been competing in. 10 to 10.5 furlongs would seem to be about his ideal distance, and the punters obviously agree, making him 9/5 second best. J Bradley is one of the top jocks round here, and it will be interesting to see whether he tries to force the issue in this short field which the horse seems to have the pace for over these sort of trips.

George Cinq is next, a home bred son of Louis Quatorze out of a Seattle slew mare. Kelso obviously decided that the horse would be better once he’d matured and kept him in the barn at two. He has been proved right with the horse getting better than ever this year winning a couple of allowances and stepping up to stakes level since. Another who seems to do well at about this trip, he has run well in the stakes races without really getting to the leaders and looks like another that may well be happier in a short field. Whether this is the one is not certain, but he will add a decent wedge of cash to his $140,000 lifetime earnings just for turning up, and if he steps up a little on his recent form, may even add a more substantial sum. Jockey P Papp will certainly hope so, as the 10% would come in very handy.

Last but definitely not least is the punter’s choice as favourite, Safety zone. Catamount2 sent his top class multiple GI winning horse Danger Zone (Danzig x Nashua) to the breeding shed in order to get this classy son of Spinning world and must be happy with what he has done on the course since switching from turf to dirt this year. The resultant four wins from eight starts have seen a steady increase in speed and since stepping up to stakes company he has run some great races with a couple of decent third places. His last start was a win in the Spain Niner special stakes with an eye catching SP of 105 over today’s trip. A repeat of that run would make him a shoe-in here under top local jock A Craig and at 6/5 in a four runner field, some people would see this as buying money. He certainly looks the class of the field here, but several short price favourites have been turned over lately, especially with the change of season seeing some of them well into their winter coats. Providing he has held his form, he wins, but a lot of money needs to be laid to make buying money worthwhile, and your correspondent will keep his hands in his pockets.

Having said that, I can not honestly see any of these beating Safety zone, but I’ll have a saver on 4-1-2 for the tricast. Good luck to all connections, lets hope they all come back sound, and anyone who wants to buy money doesn’t end up regretting it.