Horse Racing Tips on Thursday, August 18
The Sky Bet Ebor Festival continues at York on Thursday afternoon with another seven-race card to look forward to. Our expert editor has delved into the entries and produced their top tips for the day, which make up our advised Thursday Lucky 15.
Dare To Hope (14:25 York) 15/2
Richard Hannon has won four of the last six renewals of this contest so it’s certainly no surprise to see his only runner Shouldvebeenaring at the top of the betting. Another trainer who has enjoyed recent success in this contest is Richard Fahey who struck in 2018 with Red Balloons and will be confident of going close in this year’s contest with DARE TO HOPE.
Purchased for £20,000 as a yearling, the son of Camacho made the ideal start for connections on his debut at Nottingham back in April, overcoming clear signs of inexperience to defeat George Scott’s subsequent Listed winner Rocket Rodney by 1¼ lengths. Beaten a short head under a penalty on his following start at Ripon, Dare To Hope was arguably unlucky not to finish closer than twelfth when meeting trouble in running in the ultra-competitive Super Sprint at Newbury just last month. Sent to contest a Nursery at York just a week later, Richard Fahey’s colt again ran a race full of promise, travelling much the best before finding Kevin Ryan’s Gimcrack-bound Catch The Paddy too strong in the closing stages.
Rated 90, Dare To Hope appears to hold leading claims on these terms and connections will expect the two-year-old to take another step forward on Thursday afternoon and record his second career victory.
Tuesday (15:35 York) 4/1
Aidan O’Brien has a tremendous record in this contest and will be bidding for his seventh victory in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday afternoon. All of his previous winners have been three-year-olds which bodes particularly well for supporters of TUESDAY, who returns to the track following a short break.
The three-year-old was having her fourth start in just 55 days when running way below her best in the Irish Derby at the Curragh when last seen in June. Beaten ten lengths behind Ralph Beckett’s impressive winner Westover, Aidan O’Brien’s filly never travelled with any zest and perhaps her previous exertions had taken it’s toll at that point. Prior to that below-par effort, the daughter of Galileo had previously found the frame in the English and Irish 1000 Guineas in May before appreciating the step up in trip when edging out Emily Upjohn by a short head in a thrilling renewal of the Epsom Oaks at the start of June.
A full sister to seven-time Group 1 winner Minding, Tuesday still has plenty of scope for further improvement at this stage of her career and Aidan O’Brien is likely to have her spot on for Thursday’s feature contest following a 54-day layoff.
Haskoy (16:10 York) 5/1
Ralph Beckett’s HASKOY certainly falls into the ‘could be anything’ category after just one outing but it was certainly hard not to be impressed by how easily the daughter of Golden Horn put the race to bed on her debut at Wolverhampton twenty days ago.
Despite being slowly away under jockey Hector Crouch, Haskoy soon found her stride and quickly found herself in a prominent position heading out on the final circuit. Pulled to the outside of the field turning for home, the three-year-old quickened up noticeably well and soon put daylight between herself and her toiling rivals, stretching clear inside the final furlong to win by seven lengths. Whilst many may question what she beat that day, there is actually some substance to the form, with the second and third rated 89 and 87 respectively.
Closely related to Group 1 winner Spinning Queen, it seems fairly significant that Ralph Beckett has decided to head straight down the Pattern route with Haskoy and the booking of Ryan Moore certainly catches the eye.
Manifested (16:45 York) 10/1
Richard Hannon runs two in here and of the pair, it’s MANIFESTED who makes the most appeal making his nursery debut off a workable mark of 81. A colt by Camacho, he is yet to get off the mark in his three starts so far, however, he has shown a fair level of form already and is improving with each start.
Evidently held in high regard at home, Manifested made his debut in a useful seven-furlong maiden at Newmarket’s July meeting and whilst he ultimately shaped in need of the experience in seventh, Richard Hannon’s colt wasn’t beaten far behind three subsequent winners.
Returning to the track just fifteen days later, Manifested built on his opening start when performing with plenty of credit in another competitive maiden, this time at Sandown. Fourth on that occasion, he managed to split a pair of future winners that day and was far from disgraced behind the 90-rated Golden Speech and Sir Michael Stoute’s Group-bound Kingman colt Nostrum. Third on his most recent outing at Ffos Las in August, Manifested again bumped into a useful type when finishing 2¼ lengths behind William Haggas’ Lord Bertie. Not beaten far, Richard Hannon’s colt hit the line strongly and certainly looks poised to strike soon on that latest evidence.