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STAY WITH BURKE THIS WEEKEND

April 2nd, 2016 | Ian Carnaby's Racing News

The Flat turf season begins in earnest on Saturday with the rescheduled Lincoln at Doncaster, preceded by the ‘consolation’ race, the Betway Spring Mile.
Incidentally, while I understand the dismay in some quarters regarding Channel 4’s decision to give motor racing priority over the first big handicap of the new campaign, it is easy to underestimate the level of interest in fast cars. To the many thousands of people who signed the Jeremy Clarkson petition, his violent misdemeanour meant nothing at all compared with losing their weekly ‘fix’ of Top Gear. Sad but true.
Richard Fahey mounts his usual assault on the Lincoln and I think the best of his three challengers may well be Rene Mathis, who kept turning up in valuable handicaps last term, winning a couple of them, before finishing unplaced three times in a row. This is pure Fahey, of course, because the horse’s handicap mark has not suffered unduly, though I do just wonder if Rene Mathis is better at seven furlongs than a mile. Stable-companion Farlow will appreciate the longer distance and I think he is more than capable of making the frame.
I am not overlooking our old friend Man Of Harlech, who may well be better on grass than the AW, while You’re Fired represents Karl Burke, who is always to be respected at this time of year.
I cannot see a major investment in the Lincoln but Burke’s YOURARTISONFIRE may go very close in the Spring Mile. He came to hand early a year ago and won again a few months later. He will be an each-way price and should be backed.
It could just be that many of Fahey’s horses rose a little too high in the handicap last year because he does not have nearly as many runners as usual on this Doncaster card. However, ALBEN STAR won the Sprint Championship at Lingfield the other day and can show he is just as good on this surface in the Cammidge Trophy.
Burke’s GEORGIAN BAY will be fit enough in the seven-furlong handicap at Kempton, where James Fanshawe’s ZEST may show in the fillies’ conditions stakes that she is a genuine Oaks contender.