Doncaster free tips: Last-time-out winner and rank outsider target richest prize on Thursday’s card
- John Fearn
- 12 September 2024
Day one of Doncaster’s St Leger meeting has some mouthwatering races lined up, including this huge field of capable two-year-olds competing for the biggest purse on Thursday’s card.
14:25 Doncaster: Weatherbys Scientific £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes (6½ furlongs)
The bookies can’t see this being won by any horse outside the four market leaders, which are topped by Aidan O’Brien’s rising star, Camille Pissarro, who is expected to produce the goods under Ryan Moore.
A win and two runner-up spots in his five juvenile outings suggest he should be the one to beat, with Caburn and Intrusively heading the challenge under Dylan Hogan and Rossa Ryan respectively.
Catching our eye most of all, however, is the Charlie Appleby-trained Hallasan, who has been sent off as the short-priced favourite in all four appearances to date, finally landing the odds when upped to six furlongs last time out in a Nottingham maiden eight weeks ago.
Runner-up that day, Mukaber, franked that form with a tidy win of his own at Newbury last month, and while Hallasan faces a tougher challenge here, he is expected to continue his progress under the returning guidance of Willam Buick, who turns up fresh from three wins in his last seven rides.
Best Bet: Hallasan each-way in the 14:25 at Doncaster
- Tip advised by Statometer on Tipstrr
With 15 of the 20 scheduled starters available at double-digit odds, there’s plenty of outsider options worthy of cautious each-way consideration, should any of the market principals falter.
Cairdeas, Moving Force, Yes I’m Mali and Miss Nightfall have all had their respective moments parading around a winner’s enclosure, but in a classic case of ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’, we’re sticking our neck out and plumping for an unfancied filly in the shape of Cuban Girl.
The formidable partnership of Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy have twice tasted success in this race in recent years, and Cuban Girl made a promising debut under the same jockey when third of eight over this distance at Windsor in late June.
A somewhat tricky ride, she was at her least cooperative on her return to action three weeks ago at Wolverhampton, where she gave David Probert a tough time over a longer trip on her first encounter with a synthetic track.
The hood she wore that day is now discarded, and it's hoped she will respond better to the return of Murphy, and at such a price it’s hard to resist the fact that if anyone can get Cuban Girl to defy her huge odds, then it is the champion jockey elect.
Each-way punt: Cuban Girl in the 14:25 at Doncaster
- Tip advised by The King Of Horses on Tipstrr
