Doncaster Races

There was a high class of racing yesterday, with tricky fields and great finishes. A day when there were no favourite winners.

The first race with its huge field created some problems for the punters, with the favourite finishing  17th, Mysterial under jockey Phil Dennis took a quick lead just ahead of Ready, ridden by apprentice jockey of the year Josephine Gordon. However coming into the final 3 furlongs horses, who had been held up, towards the back of this large field started making headway. Laurence and Banditry two horses who managed to give  chase were joined one furlong out by American Artist. With one furlong to go and four horses in contention, the slightly hampered Banditry was beaten by a head by Laurence trained by Luca Cumani. American Artist was third and Sennockian Star fourth, the first four horses were reasonably clear of the rest of the field.
After the first race the going officially changed from good to good to soft.

The big race of the day (a class one), was very difficult, obviously all the horses had potential to win. Rivet, trained by William Haggas, set the pace, all other horses closely grouped giving chase. The favourite Yucatan was held up and tried to make headway 3 furlong out as did many others. Yet Rivet was too far clear and was allowed to quicken his pace eventually been ridden well clear by 1 3/4 lengths. The field was strung out. I personally found Yucatan and The Anvil very disappointing. The Anvil was never really in the running and weakened with two furlongs to go, a contrast from the last run at Newmarket where he finished third.

Thanks to Josephine Gordon for having a selfie with me. Next update will be after the meeting on Monday 24th October at Redcar.