HORSE RACING: Tomorrow's racing is a feast for punters with lots of variety on offer, and if the afternoon fayre is not enough there is the Breeders’ Cup to gorge upon during the evening.
Godolphin have high hopes of being among the winners at the horse racing “World Championships” in California and they can go into them on a high by landing the November Handicap with Friston Forest.
Doncaster is the venue for the last Flat turf meeting of the year in this country and the November Handicap is the highlight, with a maximum field of 23 runners declared.
Friston Forest is one of two Godolphin representatives and the rain that has been falling all week should suit him down to the ground.
Trained in France until this year, the five-year-old won a Listed race at Chantilly on soft going last October and his best effort in England came in the mud when he was third in the Northumberland Plate.
His last two efforts were disappointing, but they were on fast ground and connections appear to have been waiting for underfoot conditions to come right having given their charge a break since the end of July.
This race will be a real stamina test and that will benefit Friston Forest, who at odds of around 20/1, should give his backers a cracking each-way run for their money.
Marwan Koukash’s colours are becoming more familiar and he even had a runner in the Melbourne Cup this week, while on the same day his two-year-old Our Jonathan won a Group 2 race in France.
At the last Doncaster meeting Layla’s Hero struck for Dr Koukash and he can enter the winner’s enclosure on Town Moor again courtesy of Les Fazzani, who bids to win the Gillies’ Fillies Stakes, a Listed contest, for the second year running.
Trained by Kevin Ryan, who is also responsible for Our Jonathan, the five-year-old captured this prize by seven lengths 12 months ago and has put up probably her best career performances on her last two starts.
She followed a big Leopardstown handicap victory with an excellent third place in a Group 1 race in Rome, beaten only two heads by the winner.
Everything looks to be in the favour of Les Fazzani, who will encounter very similar conditions to when she scored a year ago and she can take this valuable prize again.
There may also be a sense of déjà vu in the Wentworth Stakes courtesy of former Italian-trained gelding Icelandic, who won this event comfortably last year.
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