Stat of the Day, 26th July 2012

Stat of the Day

Stat of the Day: 26th July 2012

A solid run behind a well fancied favourite for our SotD pick, Burke’s Rock, yesterday, and a profit on an each way ticket at 17/2 returned odds.

I’m late again this morning, as this infernal heat is turning Geegeez Towers into a convection oven and precluding sleep in quite a major way. So, apologies for that, and off to the roller coaster track we go, and the…

7.40 Epsom

SotD has many friends in the training ranks, and none more so perhaps than Andrew Balding. The Kingsclere Conjuror has a knack of producing nice priced winners just when we need one, and I’m hoping today will increase my affection for his timing as well as his talent.

Balding runs two tonight at Epsom, a track where his record is exceptional (17 wins from 73 runs, +54.7 points in the last five years). The first is a once raced maiden, Pearl Bounty, who has a chance but is not my pick here.

The second, and SotD’s big hope for today, has more form, including a piece on the famously quirky Epsom strip. Perfect Mission was third here on just his second start, and has recently been plying his trade exclusively on the all weather circuit. Indeed, his last seven runs have all been on the sand, with one win and four places from that septet of starts.

Back on turf tonight, he is compromised a little by a wide draw, and will need his apprentice rider to get across pronto from box fourteen. But, if he can manage that, Perfect Mission will carry him into the race against what looks like a lot of dead wood in the opposition.

Perfect Mission has won off 70 on the all weather, and was second off 75 on the turf, so his mark of 72 here looks fair if not a snip. The ground will be fine too and, while the front-running favourite Moodhill will bid to make all, I’m hoping the Balding beast can mow him down inside the final furlong.

He’s 8/1 with Coral, not best odds guaranteed, but I suspect he’ll be shorter come post time, so we’ll have a bit of that each way today.

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