RIDGE RANGER IS QUICKER THAN PEOPLE THINK

It was good to see Captain Colby winning so convincingly last week. Things are going very well at present and there have been many winners here and on the line, with the Symphony Group Handicap at Yotk doing us proud. Captain Colby, third that day, was following up Hay Chewed’s win at Leicester. They had finished third and seventh on the Knavesmire.

The winner that day was Boom The Groom, of course, and he deserves a shot at better company in the Group 1 Dubai International Airport World Trophy at Newbury on Saturday. He will go well but is essentially somewhere between top handicap and Listed class and I suspect three or four of these will be too good for him.

If the rain stays away and the ground rides good to firm, I shall back RIDGE RANGER each-way at an attractive price. She is lightning quick on fast ground and may surprise people by setting up a lead. She was always going to be caught over six at Pontefract last time but that was a very different task. The one thing that troubles me is the Group penalty which means she has to take on the boys at levels. However, she will be the value in the race as long as it stays dry.

I have only passing thoughts about the Ayr Gold and Silver Cups. Put bluntly, everything in GROWL’S profile suggests he will go very close in the big one and I’d be looking to back him at about 7/1 favourite with a saver at a handy price. I have had a word from Ireland concerning G Force and it would hurt more than I can say should Poyle Vinnie spring a 50/1 surprise but he has run well in valuable multi-runner sprints before. Maybe the pair of them should be covered to tiny stakes.

Where the Silver consolation is concerned, I am reluctant to believe that Lexington Abbey has lost his way entirely and Kevin Ryan knows the time of day in these valuable sprint handicaps. I’d also mention that Saeed Bin Suroor is just starting to send out winners again after a bout of the virus and Godolphin always wanted Kickboxer out of Mick Channon’s stable. He will be a very big price indeed but that does not stop the Godolphin horses when they come to themselves and I shall adopt the same strategy as in the Gold Cup, keeping stakes to the minimum.

I really don’t like anything else all that much at all, though I note that Pat Smullen, over to ride for Ryan, has been snapped up by Bin Suroor for FLIGHT OFFICER in the 4.20. He should be right there at the death.