It’s day two of Doncaster’s St Leger meeting on Friday with an eight-race card coming up featuring Group 2 contests, The Flying Childers and the Doncaster Cup.
Phill Anderson of the Racing Post supplies us with his best bets on Friday's card at Doncaster.
Doncaster Racing Tips
13:50 Doncaster - Wield @ 8/1
14:25 Doncaster - Tokaido @ 9/1
17:20 Doncaster - Canvas @ 8/1
13:50 Doncaster - Wield @ 8/1
The Leger Legends race is a risky betting medium as a general rule but there’s one angle that is often a little overlooked and that revolves around recently retired Flat jockeys.
Those that have retired in the last couple of seasons generally have a fitness edge, as well as a sharpness edge and we’ve seen the likes of Joseph O’Brien, Ted Durcan and Sammy Jo Bell enjoy success in this contest in recent times, having only recently retired from the saddle.
This year, Joe Fanning has an interesting ride on Wield who looks a little overpriced. The three-year-old had shown very little in his first three runs for his new connections but took a significant step back in the right direction on the all-weather at Southwell last month when beaten less than a length.
He has a little bit to find on bare form but the first-time tongue-tie (retained here) may have been the key to him re-finding the sort of form he showed for Andrew Balding at the beginning of his career and he has fewer miles on the clock than most of his rivals, therefore, there could easily be more to come.
With bet365 paying an extra place on the race (four rather than three), he looks worth supporting each-way.
14:25 Doncaster - Tokaido @ 9/1
The Flying Childers has the makings of an above average renewal and one horse that seems to have been forgotten about in the betting is Tokaido.
The French raider was highly progressive in France earlier in the campaign, flying through the ranks to win four on the spin including Listed, Group 3 and Group 2 races at Chantilly and Deauville.
He was then sent off at just 5/1 for the valuable sales races at York where nothing went right for him having missed the break early before struggling to get a position.
If you can forgive one below par run, then he should surely be shorter in the betting and there’s also the promise of him resuming progress back down in distance.
17:20 Doncaster - Canvas @ 8/1
Friday’s finale has a competitive look to it but there are a few reasons to think Canvas can outrun his odds.
Scott Dixon’s four-year-old is a two-time course winner who scored from an 8lb higher mark at York towards the end of last season and he bounced back to form in the very same race on the Knavesmire on Sunday when only finding a thriving Karl Burke inmate too good.
That looked like a particularly good race for the grade and Canvas’ effort has to be worth marking up given that he set unsustainable fractions from the front, doing particularly well to hold on for second.
While this is another big field affair, an uncontested lead isn’t out of the question from a low-ish draw (7f) in a race that lacks pace and provided he doesn’t find this run coming too soon just five days on, he should be capable of getting into the mix again from the same handicap mark.
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Tipster's Recent Winners
Phill Anderson picked out five winners for bet365 last month including Dancing In Paris (recommended at 12/1) and Johnny Concrete (recommended at 5/1).
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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.
