Talking Horses: Dare To Hope to atone for Cup flop in big Yorkshire week

All roads in British racing lead to Yorkshire for the next eight days and while the £6.8m Ebor Festival at York next week is the main attraction, the £100,000 Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon on Saturday, the feature event on the track’s biggest afternoon of the year, offers punters a tempting chance to limber up for the challenges ahead.

Draw and pace angles are usually the place to start with a big-field sprint handicap, but there is little obvious bias in the draw at Ripon when the runners stretch across the track and the field is likely to split.

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Front-runners are generally favoured at the course, but there is more than enough pace in Saturday’s race to suggest that hold-up horses like Summerghand, the likely favourite, will get a chance to unleash their finishing kick.

Summerghand closed to within a head of the front-running winner in this race last year, when he was racing from an 8lb higher mark, so he goes to post with an obvious chance on the book. His best recent form, though, is at seven furlongs, and at the likely prices, the four-year-old Dare To Hope (3.20) makes slightly more appeal.

Richard Fahey’s gelding is a previous winner over track and trip, and has been dropped 2lb since finishing 10th in the Stewards’ Cup last time, when he was short of room at a vital stage.

Newbury 1.50: Sumo Sam was a long way below her best when last of seven at Goodwood in May but she has had a wind operation since and would have an obvious chance if anywhere close to her winning form in the Group Two Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster last season.

Newmarket 2.05: Having got off the mark at the seventh time of asking at Ffos Las earlier this month, Fine Interview may well be able to follow up in this quirky – and slightly uncompetitive – event for greys.

Newbury 2.25: A further tweak of the headgear saw Myconian produce his best run of the year last time out and he could be overpriced at about 10-1 on that form.

Ripon 2.45: Glendown, 10-1 in the early betting, lost his maiden tag over this track and trip last summer and remains below his career-high winning mark despite a return to form at Pontefract earlier this month.

Newbury 3.00: George Boughey’s Spangled Mac has not shown much in two outings this year but put up his best display of the season to win this race 12 months ago (from a 4lb lower mark) and has probably been aimed towards a repeat from some way out.

Newbury 3.35: Goodwood’s undulations did not appear to suit English Oak last time out and he deserves another chance to build on his emphatic handicap success at Royal Ascot in June.