TONY CALVIN: TODAY’s details and copy for all of the ITV action at Newmarket

1.50pm Newmarket – Double Rush now just 13/8 on his debut for Andrew Balding

Zoulu Chief is a NR as at 10.07am (cut leg).

It’ll be tentative betting stuff for me at Newmarket this week.

And non-existent on Wednesday (the first thing I want to know when reading copy is whether the writer are backing anything themselves).

I imagine only those that have to tip on the day – No Kevin Pulleins allowed in most outlets – will be doing so.

Not only do we not know the state of readiness about a lot of the horses, we also have to factor in Newmarket have been watering heavily in the lead-up to this three-day fixture, so I’d be wary of any draw/rail biases that may result.

The golden rail nearside bias at Newmarket has been known to surface on the odd occasion…

And tread even more lightly in the newcomers’ 2yo race at 4.10pm – I wonder how many of the eight have been in barrier trials…..

We start off with a 13-runner 0-100 6f handicap, a race in which Double Rush makes his debut for Andrew Balding, having come from Charlie Hills. That’s a very big trainer upgrade in most people’s books, I imagine, and the horse heads the market at [7/2].

That has been taken and he is now just [13/8] best on Wednesday morning as at 10.30am.

Wow.

This is what Balding said about the horse in a very recent Sporting Life interview:

“He is a horse that we are very happy to have. He had some very good form for Charlie Hills, and I know that Charlie rated him highly.

“We will aim for handicaps to start off with and see how we go. He could possibly be a Wokingham horse and there is a chance he starts at Newmarket in the week.”

Whether or not he is primed for Wednesday, having not been seen since disappointing at Ascot in September, we shall see.

But he won at this meeting last season (after winning previously on the all-weather, granted) and he was highly competitive off this mark in two subsequent starts, so it is easy to see why the market fully respects his chance.

Screaming his chance, in fact.

Stalls are on the far side, but will they come to the near rail?

If you are drawn one (Humam) then you are on the far rail, but we have often seen the stands’ rail favoured here.

I imagine plenty will be waiting until getting any clues from Tuesday’s racing at the track, though the stalls are on the stands’ side then and on the far side on Wednesday and Thursday.

Trap ones to the fore in early handicaps on Tuesday

Startled won the 13-runner 7f handicap from stall one on Tuesday (first three were 1-3-7), and Jakajaro repeated the feat in the eight-runner 5f handicap (1-2-7).

The 1m handicaps to the end the card were 3-7-11 and 2-5-6 (latter a 10-runner race).

The pace map below is more low than high here, too.

Double Rush is drawn 12 of 14.

Next up in the betting is William Haggas’ Realign at 5s, and he is right next to Double Rush in 11.

Tom in clover

It is 9s bar those two, and that brings in Invictus Gold.

Now, he is interesting solely on the fact that Tom Clover has had six recent runners, with two winners, three seconds and one third . Very small sample and short enough prices, but even so.

The horse finished third to Double Rush in the 3yo 6f handicap at this meeting last season and he then went up to gag up at the Guineas fixture here afterwards.

Rated 104 after that success, he is now down to 101 (which enables him to get into this 0-100 handicap), and he looks a fair each way price at 9s. He could prove to be well drawn in four, given the pace set-up, but that is to be seen.

The 9s has been taken.

Recent runners – Rousing Encore looks big enough at 20s

Five of these have raced in the last three weeks or so, and I am little surprised to see Rousing Encore at 20s after a cracking run at Newcastle last month.

He bumped into a well-handicapped horse in Power Fizz there and a 1lb rise for that effort looks fair enough.

He may be a Newmarket virgin on the Rowley Course but I wouldn’t like to lay him at general 20s.

He is drawn alongside the market leaders in 13, fwiw.

2.25pm Newmarket – Too many unknowns in here

Five of the seven are making their seasonal reappearances in this 3yo 1m1f Listed Feilden Stakes, and one of the others (Shayem) finished a 50-length 13th of 14 on the dirt at Riyadh in February , so that is hardly a positive.

Wareeth has a proven conventional prep on his side, having won by 14 lengths over a mile on his debut at Newcastle last month. Okay, his main market rival pulled up but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be impressed by that performance and this Sea The Stars colt is surely going to improve for this extra furlong and beyond.

But how good is he? And how will be fare up in grade up on the turf?

I have no idea, to be perfectly honest with you.

He is a [10/3] chance alongside Isaac Newton at [7/2], with Poseidon’s Warrior currently topping the market at [5/2].

Wareeth’s owner, Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, also has twice-raced York winner Morshdi in here, too. He is obviously completely unexposed, too.

This is too much of a guess-up for me but, in form terms, Bourbon Blues is probably overpriced at 20s.

However, you’d have to have a far better handle on the stable gossip/trainer talk (sorry, informed sources) than me to risk more than a tenner on this race.

I’ll not even risk that in this race.

3pm Newmarket – How straight is 7/4 favourite Damysus against race-fit rivals?

John and Thady Gosden haven’t had many runners in the UK this season (25, in fact – 6 winners) but they have only been 1/2 length away from winning with their last four recent runners, so that has to be viewed as a positive for the chances of [15/8] Damysus.

The [15/8] was cut into [7/4], and that is coming under pressure early on Tuesday afternoon.

A progressive Group 3 winner here on his final start last season, he is clearly a lightly-raced colt of no little potential, and he could well be the one to beat, for all he carries a 3lb penalty on his first run of the campaign.

In fact, if he is straight enough then I think he will win. But I have no idea of his fitness levels, or if this is a stepping stone to bigger prizes in early summer.

This is certainly a very tight-knit six-runner race on official ratings, with the exception of Prague perhaps.

The race-fit pair of Boiling Point and Skukuza are next in the betting at [10/3] and 5s, and I’d agree that they are the two best-placed to take advantage of any chinks in the favourite’s early-season fitness armour.

But they’ll be 10 more attractive betting races than this every day of the week (if I still looked at racing in midweek, that is…).

3.35pm Newmarket – Act Of Kindness heads the tricky Nell Gwyn betting at 4/1

Silenciosa out at 9.30am (colic).

I came to this race after doing the double entries for Saturday’s racing and it was interesting (well, mildly, anyway) that three of these were also put in Newbury’s Fred Darling at the weekend after being confirmed for this race at 10am.

They were Act Of Kindness, America Queen and Silenciosa , so maybe connections of those three are going to look at ground options before committing to run here.

Or maybe it is simple common sense to give yourself options in case there is a very short-term issue.

Anyway, Act Of Kindness, a half-sister to the Fillies’ Mile winner Ylang Ylang, heads the betting at [4/1] despite being beaten 2 lengths by Mubasimah here on their respective debuts. The winner is now [9/2] in here.

Act Of Kindness went on to win her maiden, while Mubasimah was beaten next time, but that was only by a neck in the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes here.

Official ratings suggest [11/2] chance Beautify and 6s poke America Queen (the 10s was taken about her, as was 17/2 and 8s on Tuesday) are the two to beat, but maybe the third-best in the figures, Fitzella, is even more attractively priced at 2os, four places (latter is now only 12s on Wednesday morning).

But it would be no surprise if one or two of the even more unexposed types were springers in the market and chinned all of the above, like Gozzas’ once-raced Kempton scorer and 10s chance Asmeralda.

I prefer to bet when I have a decent handle on all the runners.

But I’ll sleep on all of the ITV races, and come back when I have a look at the revised prices on Tuesday and see if the racing that day gives any clues (mind you, the prices will be cut if it does…)

Until then, I’d tread carefully myself.

I have looked again on Tuesday afternoon and it is nothing doing for me tomorrow.

NEWMARKET (another 4mm applied after racing on Tuesday)

GOING: Good

GOING STICK: 6.9, Wednesday 6am

Rails: Far Side Course in Use

Stalls: Far Side

Wednesday course update: Forecast: Dry and cloudy morning before turning to an afternoon of sunny spells with the threat of a light shower (1mm).

Watering: 15mm applied on Tuesday / Wednesday. Further 15mm applied on Friday / Saturday; 5mm applied on Monday; 4mm applied on Tuesday evening

Yr.no forecast (8.30am Wednesday); 1.3mm Wednesday, 0.2mm Thursday

FIRST-TIME HEADGEAR STAT

Roger Fell cheekpieces; Andesite, 1.50pm; 6-93

PACE MAPS (manually assessed)

1.50pm: Realign? (drawn 11) Humam? (1),  Dark Thirty (7), Eternal Sunshine (2), Diligently (prom – 3) – Zoulu Chief is a NR

2.25pm: Command The Stars (4), Shayem (2), Poseidon’s Warrior (3)

3pm: Boiling Point (1), Persica (6), Prague (4)

3.35pm: Awaken? (3), Azleet? (12), Beautify (8), Cherry Baker (9), Fitzella (5), Harlequin Breeze (1), Inis Mor (prom – 10), Mubasimah (7)

TRAINERFORM (manually assessed)

Good: Tom Clover (very small sample, but very good and another winner on Tuesday), John and Sean Quinn, Andrew Balding (winner on Tuesday), Clive Cox (small sample), Roger Fell, Charlie Appleby (very good – two odds-on winners on Tuesday), John and Thady Gosden, Archie Watson, Richard and Peter Fahey

Fair:  Robert Cowell (fair/good – winner on Tuesday), Mick Appleby, William Haggas (not great for him though), Stuart Williams, Ruth Carr, George Scott, Karl Burke (winner on Monday), Aidan O’Brien (fair/good – winners but plenty of runners), Richard Hannon (winner on Tuesday), Dylan Cunha (winner on Monday), Ed Dunlop, Richard Hughes (15-2 winner on Tuesday), George Boughey (winner on Monday), Jim Goldie (10-1 and 5-2 winners on Sunday), Hugo Palmer (fair/good – winner on Tuesday), James Owen (winner on Monday)

Moderate: Harry Charlton

Don’t know:  Heather Main, Brian Meehan, Jane Chapple-Hyam (one winner; five runners), David Menuisier, Charles Hills (one winner from four runners, so decent)