Epsom Racecourse: preview and tips for today’s opening Spring Meeting
The Flat season at Epsom is back as the Spring Meeting, the traditional season opener at the track, arrives this afternoon.
Six races are slated for the card, kicking off at 2.05pm with a novice stakes in class four before ending at 4.58pm as a field of ten heads to the stalls for the mile handicap in class four.
Read below for a full rundown of the Epsom card on Tuesday courtesy of Racing TV, who have the very latest free bets offers throughout the Flat season.
Runman looks very much the way to go in the opening race of the new season at Epsom (2.05) as nine runners take on the novice stakes in class four over the mile trip. The John and Thady Gosden-trained runner was a winner at Salisbury on debut in October and under top jockey Oisin Murphy, is very hard to oppose here to follow up.
The Listed Blue Riband Trial Stakes is up next at 2.40 with a handy £34,026 going to the winner. Of the six runners, it is tough to look past Frankel colt New Zealand for the all-conquering duo of Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore, last seen when finishing fifth behind stablemate Puerto Rico in the Group 1 Criterium at Saint-Cloud but only by three lengths, while New Zealand has Group 1 entries further down the track this season including in the English and Irish Derby’s so this could be a stepping stone to major success later in the year.
A class two handicap marks race three on the card (3.15) over the mile and a quarter distance. Aurel has had some time off since finishing seventh in the Golden Gate Stakes at Royal Ascot but was a fine winner at Leicester prior to that so a repeat of that previous form should see him go close here for the Ralph Beckett team.
A mile and a half handicap in class three is up next (3.50) and five runners are set to head to the stalls. Topteam has been very progressive for the Andrew Balding team, having resumed winning ways at Kempton on seasonal return and was a hat-trick winner last campaign so gets the vote in this one over Asgard’s Captain, who won twice last year – one of those being in this exact race 12 months ago – for trainer Dylan Cunha.
Six runners will line up for the penultimate race of the Spring Meeting card at 4.23 where On Message could pick up a second winner on the card having got off the mark in good fashion at Wolverhampton in October and progress is expected here after now being sent handicapping for the prominent yard.
Finally, the card concludes at 4.58pm with a mile handicap in class four. Defending champion Tribal Rhythm is back for more having won this race 12 months ago for the Denis Coakley team. He could be a good shout to repeat the trick 12 months on with Oisin Murphy booked to ride following an encouraging second on his seasonal reappearance at Bath 23 days ago.
Epsom selections – Tuesday
2.05 – Runman
2.40 – New Zealand
3.15 – Aurel
3.50 – Topteam
4.23 – On Message
4.58 – Tribal Rhythm
Image: Horses racing Image: Credit Paul. CC BY 2.0