The Somerville Lodge team send three runners to post at 3 venues on Thursday with all three strongly fancied to collect, and all supported by excellent data stats.
The 2yo Maltese Cross goes to post first in the 1.50 at Newmarket. He will be something of an outlier as Haggas has ran 50 2yo’s at the Cambridgeshire meeting with only 4 winning and a large percentage unplaced. The 3 winners were all outsiders unconsidered in the market. A vast majority over 90% have been unraced.
Maltese Cross will be only the 4th to have had a previous run and gone off in the first three in the markets. The other 3 finished 1st, 2nd and 5th. His run at Ascot was really eye catching- with anything like a forceful run he would have won. It was a race where nearly all of the small field was highly ranked. Study of Words who was well beaten in 5th just got touched off behind a heavily Ralph Beckett 2yo at Goodwood yesterday There is always a chance one of the newcomers could be special, but it will be very disappointing if the 2yo son of Sea the Stars doesn’t improve enough to win this intriguing contest.
The yard knew the ground was going to be fast when they declared the colt so that shouldn’t be an issue. Unfortunately, I thought we would get around 7/4 but it has been put in at 11/10 and it just doesn’t make sense backing Haggas 2yo maidens, even after a run ,at that short price.
Unfortunately No Recommended Bet Maltese Cross 1.50 Newmarket
Of equal promise was the run of Gaspacho at Haydock when he was another Haggas unraced 2yo to go off at a short price. They should all be 8/1 or bigger. He was trapped on the rails throughout the contest and had a nice introduction staying on well in the final furlong. That won’t happen on Thursday as he has drawn stall 9. Danny Tudhope takes the ride and he will probably make the most of the experience gained at Haydock and ride him prominently throughout.
The record of the last 8 Haggas 2yo’s to run at Pontefract reads:
4 Won 3 2nd 1 3rd
Gaspacho will be strongly fancied to enhance improve that win ratio:
Like Maltese Cross he has again been put in at a very short price of 11/10 and whilst unlike some of the unraced 2yo’s i wouldn’t lay those with experience – that price is just too short.
No Recommended Bet
The Final runner of the day is the highly touted maiden Mukhatalif who must go down as one of the most disappointing horses in the yard this season.
Just 5 runners including a Saaed Bin Suroor runner coming back from a break of nearly 3 years (they can still be dangerous) Mukhatalif will be odds on but can get her career belatedly back on track and improve the Haggas strike rate of 40% (10-25) with 3yo maidens and novices running at Newcastle in the last 4 months of the year.
No Bet Recommended – Price too short.
Chrysalis Consortium 
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