HORSE RACING FIXTURES AND RESULTS
ASCOT
| Going: Good to Soft | BriefingTHIRSK
| Going: Good to Soft (Good in places) | BriefingUTTOXETER
| Going: Good to Soft (Good on Hurdles course straight) | BriefingCHEPSTOW
| Going: Soft (Good to Soft in places) | BriefingNEWMARKET (JULY)
| Going: Good to Soft | BriefingYORK
| Going: Good | BriefingDOWN ROYAL
| Going: Good (Good to Yielding in places) | BriefingWEXFORD
| Going: Good | Briefing
HORSE RACING FEATURE
Rowleyfile Preview: Gigaset International Handicap
Simon Rowlands analyses the trends for Saturday's Gigaset International Handicap at Ascot and gives you his best bet in the race.
No-one should imagine that trying to crack large-field handicaps is easy, but you can give yourself a fighting chance by considering the evidence in a methodical manner. That is the intention of what follows: let’s agree on the facts even if we don’t necessarily agree on the conclusions!
The weekend’s big handicap is the Gigaset-backed International Stakes over 7f at Ascot, for which 28 runners have been declared. The ground is forecast as “good to soft”, with the going-stick reading on the straight course slightly quicker in the centre than on the flanks.
The effect of the draw depends on such things, as well as on where the pace is, and so can vary from one race to another, let alone from one year to another. However, taken overall, there has been surprisingly little draw bias in the race in the last decade.
