Raheen House, one of only two horses to finish in front of Enable in her stellar career, has been laid out for a crack at the £1 million Sky Bet Ebor at York and was cut to 8-1 from 10-1 with the race sponsors after he featured among the confirmations for Saturday’s prize.
Trainer William Haggas was playing down the five-year-old’s claim to fame after he split the John Gosden-trained fillies Shutter Speed and Enable, giving them both 5lb in a 1m2f conditions race at Newbury two years ago when trained by Brian Meehan, but said: “We have geared a fair amount of the year around this race.
“I have only had Raheen House this year and he came to me in good shape and he has run some solid races.
“He seems fairly adaptable ground-wise but a bit of cut will suit him to slow the others down.
“He will need a bit of luck in the race and not to be drawn halfway to Tadcaster.”
A decision on whether Dramatic Queen, also trained by Haggas, will run will be made later in the week.
Raheen House, guaranteed a place in Saturday’s handicap with his rating of 111, is set to carry 9st 6lb after the weights went up 3lb, leaving Salouen at the head of the handicap. Sky Bet, who offer non-runner no bet, on Monday cut Salouen to 14-1 from 20-1.
Salouen carries the 9st 10lb top weight after Communique and last year’s Irish Derby winner Latrobe were taken out of the race along with Gold Mount.
There was a move for last year’s Melbourne Cup third Prince Of Arran, with the Charlie Fellowes-trained contender into 20-1 from 33-1.
The six-year-old, well beaten on his first run in Britain this year at Glorious Goodwood, will be watched by a delegation of the Victoria Racing Club at York, who have brought over the Lexus Melbourne Cup to put on show.
Favourite King’s Advice will be bidding to defy a ten-year trend as not one of 22 runners to carry a penalty in the race has been successful.
That is not putting off punters, however, who have backed Mark Johnston’s hardy handicapper into 6-1 from 8-1 to make it nine wins out of ten this season.
The ground at York remains good after what clerk of the course William Derby described as “a sharp shower” on Monday which added 0.6mm of water.
He added: “The forecast is for the risk of another shower after racing on Wednesday but after that it looks settled through to the weekend with temperatures rising and getting sunnier.”
fonte : RacingPost
