Sun Chariot day at Newmarket, a Listed card at Ascot that finishes with the Challenge Cup, the Two Year Old Trophy at Redcar, and the jumps properly back at Gowran Park. There are some very tricky races on Saturday and we have left most of them alone. These are the 9 we want to talk about, in time order.
1:00 Newmarket, Tattersalls October Auction Stakes (Class 2, 7f, £167,121)
Not a betting race. A placing masterclass.
Night In Vegas is our Top Rated here, rated 102 when the next best in the field is 92. Eve Johnson Houghton's colt has already won the 2 biggest auction races of the season: the Tattersalls Somerville at Newmarket on 22 August, worth £108,220, and then the Weatherbys £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes at Doncaster on 10 September, worth £201,979.
So he turns up for a third sales race, and Zigazig Ah, who he beat by a length and a half at Newmarket in August, is back for another go. He will be a very short price and there is no bet in it. We just think it is a brilliant bit of placing: 3 races, the same horse, and the thick end of half a million pounds.
1:15 Ascot, British EBF October Stakes (Listed, Fillies & Mares, 7f, £34,026)
Our first real call of the day. So Regal is our Top Rated, she is rated 103, and we think this is her level.
Look at how she got here. On 1 May she won a Class 2 fillies' novice over this course by 2 lengths from Crownright, and did it as our Top Rated at 1.73.
Two weeks later she went to York for the Michael Seely Memorial, a Listed race, and was beaten a length and a half by Lilt. Beaten, but we rated that a better run than the winning one.
Then came the Atalanta Stakes at Sandown on 29 August, a Group 3, and she was 5th. We are not going to dress that up as a moral victory, but look at the margin: beaten a length and a half in a Group 3, on ground softer than she wants, after 3 and a half months off.
That is the shape of a filly who is too good for Listed races and not quite up to Group 3, which is exactly the horse you want in a Listed race. The Gosdens won this last year with Cajole at 9/2, off a mark of 100, after an almost identical campaign. They have found the level again.
The dangers on our figures are Dash Of Azure, who was 2nd in this last year and is our RTR 3, and William Haggas's Albaydaa, our RTR 2 off 89. Neither changes our mind. Back to 7f, in a race against what we would call inferior opposition, So Regal should be there battling and holding on.
The other 7 races, including the Sun Chariot, the Challenge Cup, the Two Year Old Trophy and 3 from Gowran Park, are below for members.