Haggas team – into full swing this weekend.

This weeks Hag Tag review includes a wider look at the top yards and the significance on the season the Newbury meeting can have.

This period of racing will potentially have a greater impact as it looks pretty certain that Newbury and Newmarket trials meetings will be ran on fast ground for the first time in five years. As will the big Irish meetings at Leopardstown and the Curragh. The sunny weather will also have accelerated many horses transition from winter to summer coats.

There are not just the official trials to look at but also the maidens and novice stakes which often contain a number of future Group winners.

I will focus on the Newbury Greenham meeting this weekend and will issue next weeks report on Monday before the Craven meeting on Tuesday 15th at Newmarket.

Over the two days at Newbury there are 6 maiden or novice stakes, one of which is for 2yo’s. Plus the 1000, and 2000 guineas trials.

I will quickly deal with the 2yo race , in which the Richard Hannon yard will be aiming to win for the third time in 3 years. Andrew Balding has won 2 of the previous 3 but hasn’t got an entry so its down to Hannon !!

The three 3 year old novice races follow on Friday. Starting with a 7f Maiden stakes for unraced 3yo Fillies off at 2.27.

Fillies based in and Lambourn have dominated this race, the excepton surprisingly was when Fakhama won first time out for William Haggas in 2023.

However, there were only six runners on Soft ground and as can happen when one of William’s win first time out, it transpired that it was a very poor race. with the six runners only ever mustering two AW wins one off a mark of 72 the other 59.

The race has a poor record generally and favourites also have a poor record with 1 joint favourite and 1 clear favourite winning in the last 12 runnings. There have been few serious gambles and it is a race to avoid on Friday and to be very cautious over the form moving forward.

The next race at 3.03 , is over 10f but also restricted to fillies only. This race is far more significant in terms of future form. Most winners go onto contest Group 1 and 2 races, this is especially true when the race is won by a leading yard. Newmarket trainers dominate the event. Racecourse debutants have a good record and having had a previous run is not a big advantage. Again favourites have only an average record.

Very similar comments apply to the colts race at 3.37, also over 10f.

The Novice race of real interest is the 3.45 at Newbury on Saturday this race is targeted by William Haggas, John Gosden and Andrew Balding and the money is rarely lost.

Here are the stats from the last 9 years concerning the performance of the race favourites.

2024 Economics William Haggas Won 11/4 fav

2023 To Catch A Thief William Haggas 5th 5/2 fav

2022 My Prospero William Haggas Won 13/8 fav

2021 Foxes Tales Andrew Balding Won 2/1 fav

2020 No Race

2019 Fox Chairman Andrew Balding Won 15/8 fav

2018 He’s Amazing Clive Cox 2nd 4/1 fav

2017 Call to Mind William Haggas Won 6/4 fav

2016 No Race

2015 Keble John Gosden 2nd 2/1 fav

2014 Mutakayyef William Haggas 2nd 1/1 fav

Favourites have a very good record 5 winners from 9 races 3 2nd placed 1 U/P.

William Haggas won 3 from 5 favourite –

Andrew Balding 2 from 2 favourites

The final Novice stakes is off at 4.19 over 1m3f

Charlie Appleby has won this race twice and had one horse placed second in the last 3 runnings. The two winners were favourite and the 2nd place was 2nd fav

William Haggas has won 2 of the last 10 from just 4 horses to have ran in the race. Both were in the first two in the market one other that finished 4th was 2nd favourite. The other runner unplaced at 20/1.

John Gosden also targets this race

Gosden has won 3 of the last 8 but beware his runners have ran badly in the last 3 years and are not performing as they did 5 years ago.

Surprisingly Andrew Balding is 0 from 7 with only one horse placed.

Appleby has no entries this year but Goldophin have a Gosden runner named Valedictory with William Buick jocked up.

Finally a look at the two Guineas trials on Saturday

Both races are generally no longer considered as definitive trials for either Guineas and only Richard Hannon and latterly Ralph Beckett seeing as serious preparation for the Guineas.

Apart from John Gosden both races are normally dominated by trainers local to Newbury. However from the entry stage in the 2025 Fred Darling that is not the case with Aiden O Brien, William Haggas, Charlie Appleby all sending very highly rated fillies and if they stand their ground it looks a serious 1000 Guineas trial that will have a big impact on the Ante Post markets.

The William Haggas entry Nardra is very highly regarded and bolted up in Heavy ground on his 2yo debut. The form is only fair and this is a huge step up in class. She maybe good enough but it is not feasible to make her a bet on the evidence we have at the moment.

The Greenham does not look so strong with the entries looking to comprise mainly Group 2 or 3 colts although – Charlie Appleby has a couple of good quality entries.

A list of William Haggas entries this weekend with those in bold being considered as potential leading 3yo’s for the yard this season

Friday 2.27 N Consecrated, Siren Star

Friday 3.37 N Gold Cup Day, Opportunity

Saturday 2.00 N Nardra

Saturday 3.45 N Crown of Oaks

Saturday 4.19 Gold Cup Day, Opportunity

Saturday 6.10 Nottingham Archivist

I will update on the Telegram and Patroen any bets from the yard in the maiden and novice stakes races discussed.

Summary

William Haggas and Charlie Appleby target this meeting as a test of their good horses who often deliver on the day.

John Gosden and Andrew Balding before 2022 could be added to the list but have poor records in the last 3 years,

Ralph Beckett to date has not targeted this meeting and his horses tend to be readied to win from the Sandown meeting at the end of April onwards.

Dubai Honour back out in Sydney

In the early hours of Saturday morning Uk Time Dubai Honour attempts to follow up his win 10 days ago in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes, a race he won in 2023. However this race is over 10f and looks likely to be ran on good ground. He also has a poor draw in 13.

More importantly he takes on Via Sistina the No 1 horse in Australia who is likely to go off long odds on favourite. After the punters debacle that occurred in the Dubai World Cup meeting nothing can be taken for granted but it will be another major shock if Via Sistina is beaten on Saturday.