Captain Colby has fair Portland chance

The best thing of the weekend has already gone in, with Cloudberry winning at Sandown on Friday. He was strongly advised on the line and looked the proverbial ‘good thing’, going unpenalised for last week’s success in an apprentices’ race at Kempton and with David Egan due to claim 7lb as opposed to five this time. In fact he only just got home from Mister Music, whom he’d beaten more comfortably in the Kempton race, which just goes to show that there are no certainties.

I won’t deliberately tip odds on, so we were spared when Nemoralia ran a truly wretched race at 4/6 in the Doncaster opener. The simple truth is that she is not as good as Jeremy Noseda says, though she and Lumiere had a stone in hand of the opposition on official figures. Lumiere is hardly reliable either, though at least she managed third.

The Doncaster Cup was a magnificent race, with Quest For More running his heart out, only to be done by Sheikhzayedroad right on the line. It will be difficult to win with any of the others from now on.

The Symphony Group handicap at York, won by Boom The Groom, is working out rather well, with seventh-placed Hay Chewed burning off her rivals at Leicester on Tuesday. True, the Ladbrokes Portland Handicap is over an extra 140 yards, which concerns me, but Captain Colby, third on the Knavesmire, is fully effective at the longer trip and I shall go with him each-way, though whether a high draw will help is impossible to say.

I hesitate over Richard Fahey’s Third Time Lucky in the mile handicap later on because he seems to be running into form in good time for another tilt at the Cambridgeshire and I just wonder whether he’d be fully primed for this. I shall watch with interest, my other one in the race being Tim Easterby’s One Word More, who is long overdue.

I cannot see a realistic danger to IDAHO in the St Leger but there may be better value in an each-way bet on PRINCESS TANSY in the last at Bath. She did us a good turn at 9/1 a fortnight ago and has another good 7lb claimer aboard this time. Obviously it’s a harder task by virtue of that success but she is very well and should trouble the best of these. Each-way is the call.