The Top Art Stakes

Playing support to the main race at Newmarket this weekend is 10.5F Top Art Stakes on the All Weather track. It’s race in which the majority of the field have met previously, and armed with the evidence of ‘battle’s past’, punters shouldn’t have too much trouble sorting the wheat from the chaff.

1- Awesome Crab 7-1; A rising 7yo son of Awesome Again who’s form has tappered off over the last 3mths. He needs to lift big time on his most recnet performances, and given his fairly solid recent workload, I am prepared to leave him out of calculations for this.

2- Port Royale 15-1; Lighly raced 3yo son of Montjeu that is coming off 2 wins on the bounce. Importantly the recent switch to the synthetic surface has yielded 2 wins from his 4 attempts. I would query him at this distance despite his 2 recent wins at 10f and 11f respectively as his quickest Beyer Ratings have been gained at 8f and 9f.

3- Newman 7-2; With a record of 18-8-2-3 this son of Galileo rates as the one to beat for mine. When one takes out his 4 Turf failures his record glows even brighter. The 10.5f suits him ideally, and given he has a win over the favourite in the Individual Ant Stks earlier this season, i find him difficult to oppose here. Great value at 7-2.

4- Sheebah’s Gold 5-1; Rharfbeam2 has got this colt nicely primed to run a hell of a race this weekend. He came off a similar 6wk break last time out to run away with an Allowance over a slightly longer trip, and if he runs up to his 3rd to Morning in the Diego Rojo Stks he will take a lot of beating here. Major player.

5- Underworld Figure 5-1; Divinely bred son of Storm Cat trained by the astute Jockeymax. He looks a major pace influence in the race, but his recent Stakes form has been a little indifferent. He has been given a failry strenuous time of it by Jockeymax lately having had 3 runs in 4wks leading up to his last start 2nd in ALW grade. He comes off only 14 days here also, and I prefer others.

6- Losing Privalages 7-1; Son of Flying Spur who will be doing his bit to keep up the good recent record of Australian bred horses at Newmarket. He comes into this having won a Stks race by 5L at 11f 2 runs back, and was then placed over 10f last time out. Both efforts were on rain effected surfaces and given he wont see any of that this weekend, Im happy to oppose him also.

7- Morning 5-2F; The favourite is trained by Hillhouse, and boasts a record of 19-6-6-0, all on the dirt. He has an outstanding record around this trip and despite seemingly losing his way the last couple of runs, he must be considered a major player here. He was beaten in very fast time last start, and before that he just didnt cope with the quality in the G2. Hard to beat.

8- Cape Tempest 5-1; Despite what would be considered a turf pedigree, this son of Caper Cross boasts 6 from 21 on the dirt. Another horse with exceptional early speed, my only query would be the 10.5f. His best form appears to be at 11f+, including some very quick recent efforts over 12/13f. Class act who is suited by more distance, but if any of the more fancied runners have an off day-this bloke will give them something to chase.

I’m going to put Newman on top here, over Sheebah’s Gold and Morning. I just think at the 7-2 he is a good gamble given his good form at the trip, and the good preparation he has had leading into this. Good luck to all involved.