The Rab Havlin Blog – Newmarket Cambridgeshire Meeting – Day Three Special

It’s a massive day in the sport of horse racing with Newmarket’s Cambridgeshire Meeting reaching its climax at Flat racing HQ. Who better to be your guide to the biggest prizes than FansBet Racing ambassador Rab Havlin? The in-form pilot highlights which horses he’d like to be riding in the day’s key races.

Rab Havlin

After a helping of Newmarket yesterday it’s off to sunny Chelmsford for a book of four rides for me this evening.

It’s actually perfect the way it’s fallen as I’ll be able to ride work in the morning for Mr Gosden, watch the majority of the action from Newmarket, then make it down the road in plenty of time for the evening fixture I’m riding at.

The best of both worlds if you like, and it’ll be fascinating to see who comes out on top in a typically wide open, 33 runner Cambridgeshire (3.40pm).

Our stable won this 12 months ago when Frankie guided Wissahickon to victory, and I’d be chuffed for everyone at the yard if we could get a similar outcome a year on with Lord North.

Having ridden him plenty and won on him on his first two outings this is a horse I know plenty about. I certainly think he has the ability to win, but my one concern is quite how streetwise he is for a rough and tumble race like this. After all, he’s only raced four times and one of those runs was in a match.

There’s always an element of a lottery in such a big field and you obviously require luck in-running. That said, Frankie will give him all the help he needs, and they do look to be drawn on the right side, close to some of the more fancied runners.

Also, he was beaten only half a length by David Simcock’s horse Bless Him last time, form which looks more than respectable given the latter won the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2017.

If Lord North can overcome his lack of experience he’ll be bang there.

There are also two exciting Group 1’s on the card, the first of which is the Cheveley Park Stakes at 2.25pm.

Horse racing

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Our stable have no runner in this, but my close pal Frankie Dettori is on Mark Johnston’s Raffle Prize and I wouldn’t mind deputising for him!

She’s proven that she’s absolutely fine on pretty much any ground and has the best form in the book, courtesy of her Group 2 successes at Royal Ascot and Newmarket, quickly followed by an excellent run in defeat when second to Earthlight in the Prix Morny last month.

Back against her own sex here she’s got a great shout, although I very much respect the French runner Tropbeau.

Anything Andre Fabre brings to England deserves attention, and she has shown a good turn of foot the last twice to win Group races at Deauville. Raffle Prize is the one I’d like to be riding, but if she gets pestered up front it could well be Tropbeau who is best placed to pounce.

Then at 3.00pm it’s the Middle Park Stakes over six furlongs. This race has the makings of a great finish because put simply, something has to give!

Earthlight, Mums Tipple and Siskin are all unbeaten coming into this and highly exciting. It’d be a lovely problem to have, but if one of them needed a rider at short notice I think I’d plump for Siskin.

He’s got guts in abundance, won’t mind any rain that hits the track, is trained by Ger Lyons who has been having stacks of winners, and having swerved a date with Pinatubo at the Curragh a couple of weeks ago might be the one who comes out of this with his record intact. Whatever happens it’ll be a great watch.

Tom Lee

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