Newmarket free racing tips: Overpriced filly weighted to turn tables on warm favourite

14:45 Newmarket: British Stallion Studs EBF Premier Fillies’ Handicap (6 furlongs)

The Grant Tuer / Sam James team ended Wednesday by landing a valuable Class 2 fillies’ event at Goodwood with Love Talk, and they can repeat the feat with Sophia’s Starlight, who comes here fresh and boasts a good record whenever she makes the journey down here from her North Yorkshire base.

Those three visits all came over this six-furlong trip between June and October last year, and she recorded a win and a close second from those three runs, of her narrow defeat in the Listed Boadicea Stakes last October was by far the most impressive performance.

Competing on level terms with the reopposing Funny Story, she was beaten by just a head , with those two pulling well clear of their ten rivals, who were rated up to 109, and it was only in the final strides that the winner edged narrowly ahead of Sophia’s Starlight, who had attempted to make every yard before being cruelly denied.

Best Bet : Sophia’s Starlight each-way in the 14:45 at Newmarket

Sophia’s Starlight receives 9lbs from Funny Story this time around, so she has to be a strong fancy to reverse that very narrow margin of defeat, yet Funny Story is one of the early co-favourites for today’s event while Sophia’s Starlight is available at double-figure odds.

That course-distance Listed race took place on soft ground, so the forecast rain should not be an issue for Sophia’s Starlight, whose other wins have been achieved on good-soft, good and good-firm.

This will be her first run over six furlongs on turf since she narrowly failed to win a fillies’ Listed prize at Haydock in May, and that was over a straight, galloping 6f (on soft).

She looks set for another big run back at a venue where she is well-proven, plus she has won first-time back from a break before, and she is fresh for the time of year.

Of the others, the Willam Haggas filly, Pinafore, should go well in what will be her first six-furlong handicap since she won a Class 2 prize in this month last year.

That was over the straight, galloping trip at Nottingham and it came with cut in the ground, so the forecast goes similarly in her favour, although her two previous turf wins both came over a straight 6f on good.

She won with first-time cheekpieces last season, so connections will be hoping for a similar outcome with her first-time visor today, and she has some strong Class 2 course-distance form to her name from last season when she was 4th/14 in mixed company on good ground.

Next Best Bet: Pinafore in the 14:45 at Newmarket

• Preview and tips provided Steve Jones, who runs CD Systems Daily Bargain on Tipstrr

READ MORE: Thursday’s free horse racing tips for Newmarket