Even after the Epsom Classics are over, there remains some top racing across the UK and worldwide on Sunday. GG tipster Joe Napier goes global by picking out three selections to follow on Sunday.
12.04am Saratoga – Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets (Grade 1)
Taking place four minutes into Sunday UK time, the final race of the US Triple Crown series takes place at Saratoga between Kentucky Derby hero Sovereignty and Preakness Stakes winner JOURNALISM. Baeza makes an interesting trio of favourites, but it’s the Preakness winner who gets the vote.
This is a far smaller field than in the Kentucky Derby, in which Sovereignty finished fastest to deny the selection. That day, Journalism got bumped at the start, but should experience less rough and tumble in a nine-runner field. He usually races more prominently than he did at Churchill Downs, as evidenced when overcoming an extraordinary late barging match at Pimlico.
He may be much harder to get by from a more prominent position, especially as there are not an overwhelming amount of pace angles for a US race. It should be a cracker either way to determine America’s champion three-year-old.
3.35pm Goodwood – Weatherbys/British EBF Agnes Keyser Fillies’ Stakes (Listed)
With some soft likely to be in the going description, a chance is taken on MODERN UTOPIA in a race where virtually every runner will have something to prove. George Scott’s yard are in pretty good form and his filly here likes some cut in the ground, as is little surprise given her sire is Arc winner Sottsass, who won that great race on heavy.
A slightly slow learner as a juvenile, Modern Utopia did bump into some useful rivals in her early contests, not least Desert Flower at Newmarket last July. However, after a hood proved ineffective on her nursery debut at Haydock, she suddenly sparked to life, first on heavy at Nottingham, then on soft on the Rowley Mile, to shoot 18lb up the handicap.
She could not maintain that improvement at Doncaster on return, nor in the Listed Cheshire Oaks, but those were both on good ground. She may lack the class of the Classic contenders, but on soft going, she could be up to winning a race of this nature.
4.45 Goodwood – Betgoodwin Tapster Stakes (Listed)
Still going at the age of nine, HAMISH has been found a good opportunity to win for a sixth season. As a horse who has finished in the top two on 17 of his 21 turf starts, he perhaps deserves more respect for his career.
That strike rate lowered when he was only fourth in the Group 2 Princess Of Wales’s Stakes on the July Course at Newmarket last summer, but otherwise, he remained proficient on grass in 2024, finishing second in the Group 1 Coronation Cup while picking up Listed and Group 3 prizes along the way.
That Listed success came by an impressive five lengths at the Curragh and he has evidently wintered well to remain in training for William Haggas. Of his rivals, Palladium and Galashiels are unraced on these shores, Raja Raja is rated 35lb below Hamish, Military Academy is yet to prove himself on turf at this level, while Bolster is untrue at the trip. Plenty is going for the old boy.
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