Our resident tipster Ben Morgan gives his best bets from the weekend’s action at Newcastle and Chester
Newcastle 2.40 – Balding bids to make Contact with Vase Trophy
It looks like connections have been preserving CONTACTO’s handicap mark, hoping to sneak into the big race tomorrow off a flyweight, but they have narrowly missed out, which is always the risk in these big races.
Andrew Balding and his team will be confident, however, that his improving young stayer can still go well in the Vase consolation race. His profile was always going to make him a warm favourite, but at 5/1 I think he is a fair price and the fact Godsend also lines up here means the two will keep each other honest in the market as both have very similar profiles.
I have had Contacto lined up for this for a while now, and I haven’t seen or heard anything to put me off him here.
Newcastle 3.15 – Irish raider to take a Plate home?
I think this year’s Northumberland Plate is a wide-open event, and I wouldn’t rule many out of this.
Because of this, I am tempted to look further down the market and chance one or two at a price. I’ve found two unexposed, young stayers priced at 16/1 and 50/1 respectively, and they will certainly do for me.
First up is TRIBAL STAR, who represents Ado McGuinness’ stable, a stable who don’t make many journeys across the Irish Sea, so it must be noted when they do.
He has just snuck in here off bottom weight, and I believe he could have plenty of room left in his current mark.
After running here in April, which remains his only run over 2m, where he finished second to the classy Wonder Legend, connections kept him off the track until earlier this month, where he appeared to have a blowout at the Curragh, presumably in readiness for this.
That form here reads very well, and you would expect a repeat of that run to put him in the mix, but I do think there is more to come, and consequently, he should have a big chance here at a juicy price.
Another with a similar profile is ALRAZEEN, who actually beat the aforementioned Wonder Legend at Kempton earlier this year.
Two poor runs subsequently and hailing from a small stable mean that he comes here completely under the radar, but his form prior to the two poor runs suggests he is a horse on the up and one who has certainly improved for the 2m trip.
If he can bounce back to that Kempton form, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go close here.
Chester 4.45 – Tailor the Man on the Roodee
TAILORMAN has to reverse form with Curran after they met at Doncaster last time out, but I think there is every chance of that happening.
He was tucked up for a bit of space towards the end of the race at Doncaster, and Jim Crowley was unable to get stuck into him when he wanted to.
He finished a very close second and looked like he could have won had the race worked out differently. A frustrating horse to follow, he does tend to run well without winning, but he will land one of these races soon, and he can be chanced here at around the 11/2 mark.
Likely to be held up, we will need a strong pace here, but that might be possible given the number of runners, and if able to latch onto the leaders turning in, I would fancy him to get the job done up the short straight.
READ MORE: Northumberland Plate Festival 2025 – Analysis and preview
