• REGISTER NOW!! Why? Because you can't do much without having been registered!

    At the moment you have limited access to view all discussions - and most importantly, you haven't joined our community. What are you waiting for? Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join Join Talking Horses here!

The 2025 Great St Wilfrid Handicap

Ian_Davies

Ian_Davies

Conditional
Joined
May 7, 2023
Messages
4,697
Location
Hampshire
I think we can all agree that Wilfrid was a top banta lad: Wilfrid - Wikipedia

And all these years later they still name a decent 6f Ripon Handicap after him.

The five-day entries for Saturday's renewal are today and I have absolute confidence the TH Massive will identify the winner at the biggest price it ever was.
 
Both were stupendous last week tbf.

Plus NOT being excited about forthcoming racing events is becoming (if it wasn't already) VERY fashionable at TH! 😂
 
After having kopeks each way on the 66s winner of the July Cup and the 150s winner of the Sussex Stakes this season, this is the type of lower level race I need to start solving more frequently and backing the winner of..

Any tips, as always, are appreciated. :)
 
Richard Fahey had four runners in the race last year and had the first two home.
He has three entered this year but the only one with a serious chance seems to be Rock Opera who finished a close third behind Elmonjed at York with an inexperienced jockey riding.
Have taken the 12/1
 
Among the currently longer-priced entries, Northcliff (25/1) and Supreme King (40/1) catch my eye.

No idea if they run or hold other engagements this week yet, I leave all the actual work to my Butler Walsworth and he's even lazier than I am.
 
Ian_Davies said:
I think we can all agree that Wilfrid was a top banta lad: Wilfrid - Wikipedia

And all these years later they still name a decent 6f Ripon Handicap after him.

The five-day entries for Saturday's renewal are today and I have absolute confidence the TH Massive will identify the winner at the biggest price it ever was.
Click to expand...
Good old Wilfrid, Rome's enforcer.

The Synod of Whitby was convened to sort out, among other things, what was the correct date of Easter. The northern part of Britain, evangelised by Irish missionaries Columba, Aidan and others of the so called Celtic church, held to one date, while the southern, Anglo Saxon half of Britain had been converted to Christianity by missionaries sent directly from Rome and observed a different date.

Wilfrid's contrbution at Whitby was to say that "the only people stupid enough to disagree with the whole world are these [Irish] and their adherents the Picts and the Britons, who inhabit only a portion of these two islands in the remote ocean... You certainly sin if, having heard the decrees of the Apostolic See and of the universal church, and that the same is confirmed by Holy Writ, you refuse to follow them. For though your fathers were holy, do you think that a few men, in a corner of the remotest island, are to be preferred before the universal church of Christ throughout the world?”

What would he make of today's world, I wonder, or even of Saturday's race?
 
Ian_Davies said:
Among the currently longer-priced entries, Northcliff (25/1) and Supreme King (40/1) catch my eye.

No idea if they run or hold other engagements this week yet, I leave all the actual work to my Butler Walsworth and he's even lazier than I am.
Click to expand...
They're both in the other race on the card -Walsworth was supposed to have researched this for me hours ago....you just can't get the staff nowadays, lazy and want to be paid a living wage, what's the world coming to?
 
Doesn't look a particularly strong race for a class 2.
Abduction (20/1). Has a sizable swing in the weights with the market leader Rousing Encore from their encounter at Ayr last autumn.
Dark Thirty (25/1), would be my two at this early stage.
 
I'm thinking along the lines of Orazio. It's only half a dozen runs or so ago that he ran a great race in the Wokingham off 6Lbs higher than this race here.
Having said that, I've always felt that you need to be drawn on either rail but not down the middle so waiting for the draw is all important.

Quote re Orazio:

22Jun24​

We were a little bit concerned about the ground coming into the race, and Orazio probably was just a little bit indecisive on the ground to start with. Then once he passed one horse, he flew home. He is a pretty decent horse and another few strides, he would have won. Delighted with him and there are a good few options now going forwards. He is in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket, we will have a look at that. There are some nice handicaps going forwards and it would be nice to hopefully end up in Group company at some stage - Charlie Hills, trainer.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Relieved to see Rock Opera stand his ground and glad I took the 12/1 now.
Wanted an high draw and allotted stall 14.
Ethan Tindall's allowance takes its weight down to 7:12 the same weight he carried to third in the York dash.
Just rewatched the York dash on the Sporting Life website and the horse is never mentioned on ommentary in the final three furlongs yet is only beaten two necks!!!
 
Robicheaux said:
Hugh Taylor as well.
Click to expand...
I think the price change would have been almost entirely as a result of Hugh Taylor presenting a very cogent case for Supreme King at 9.21 this morning in his Attheraces column. Bookmakers usually halve the price as soon as he tips one and he indicated Bet365 we’re best price at 25/1 at the time. I think he is likely to drift out a bit once the effect of this wears off. He is now 11/1 though, which I think represents his chance.

This has to be the worst Great St Wilfrid field ever assembled. Maybe the firmish going and next weeks fixture at York has made trainers look elsewhere.

I might be mad, but I am going to go for Nostrum (14/1) in his first ever run at 6f. His superior class could blow this field away if he excels at this new distance. He’s run well enough over 7f on GF and his 3 runs for David O’Meara might have set him up nicely for this. O’Meara has trained the winner of this 3 times before.

Grant Wood (11/1) and Azure Zain (33/1) will also be carrying a bit of my cash in this. The 3 are drawn 7, 5 and 8, so I’m hoping usual high draw advantage will not apply tomorrow, given the slightly smaller field than usual.

The Silver Cup interests me more as a race. Airman has got very well handicapped and should win before the season is out. It might not be tomorrow, as I suspect he wants softer going and I’m thinking perhaps Ayr for him. However, at 25/1 I will not risk letting him run without an investment. Fan Mail also interests me at 50/1. I nearly stuck Hectic in as my 3rd pick and would have replicated the draws of 5, 7 and 8, but instead opted for Woodstock at 14/1 for Ruth Carr.

Ripon has never been a lucky track for me, but I’m hoping this changes tomorrow.
 
Not the kind of race I bet in but here's an interesting titbit, since 2000, 86 horses have come to Ripon St Wilfrid Flat Handicap after running in it the previous year, of those only 4 (4.7%) have won and 22 (25.6%) have won or placed, all showing an LSP loss. Among those are 8 who won the previous year and only 1 (12.5%) has won.

This is the list of runners today who ran last year and their finishing position
Almarada Prince (7), Aramram (10), Dare To Hope (1), Emperor Spirit (9), Kitai (14), Magical Spirit (15), Manila Scouse(11), Monks Dream (16), Monsieur Kodi (13), Mr Wagyu (17), Radio Goo Goo(8), Ramazan (2), Rock Opera(12), Secret Guest(3), Summerghand (4), The Turpinator (6), Wobwobwob (5)

Obviously trends and stats can always be broken, it's just another factor to consider.
 
Last edited:
Not backing in this but if I had just one bet in the race it would be Ew Rousing Encore but I'd say the draw's not good in the 2 box.
 

Recent Blog Posts

Back
Top