Don’t Discount The Dragon At York

Top Boy ran an absolute stormer for us at Newmarket on Thursday and he was given a peach of a ride by Franny Norton. I couldn’t believe that odds of 66/1 were widely available in the run up to the race and he was eventually sent off at 33s. He was held up as per usual, and as they headed into the final furlong few travelled better.

It looked as though Franny had timed his challenge to perfection but unfortunately Shamson did him in the last 50 yards. Top Boy is one of my favourite horses in training and he is a credit to his trainer Derek Shaw. Hopefully he gets his head back in front sooner rather than later. Saturday’s selection goes in the John Smith’s Cup at York, and I am keeping the faith with Dragon Mall for David Simcock and Stevie Donohue.

David Simcock had a 20/1 winner at York on Friday.

I tipped this fella up last time at Royal Ascot where he completely missed the break for Josephine Gordon. He was detached and looked a hopeless cause as they turned for home, but amazingly he was only beaten 3.5L for the win despite also finding a bit of trouble in running. He was only a neck behind Muntazah and that horse ran a cracker at Sandown last weekend. It was an extraordinary effort seeing as he must have lost at least 15 lengths at the start and if he gets away better this time it could be his day.

The 4yo son of Blame is admittedly a hard horse to win with and his antics at the start have cost him quite a few times. He has won just one of his 14 career starts, a mile class 2 contest on the all weather at Chelmsford, but he has shown on more than one occasion that he is a talented horse. He races off a mark of 101 tomorrow, the same rating as last time, and he is 5lb better off with the winner at Ascot, Snoano.

His Newmarket based trainer David Simcock does well on his trips to Yorkshire and he teamed up with Stevie Donohue with 20/1 Listed winner Mystic Dawn on Friday. Simcock has decided to try eye shields and blinkers on Dragon Mall tomorrow and hopefully that makes him a bit more alert from the gates. He is drawn out in the car park in stall 21, but he is a hold up sort in any case so Donohue will drop him in and produce him late. Stakes should be kept small enough with this one given his quirky nature, but if things go his way then Dragon Mall could make a mockery of his odds of 25/1.

STEVOS’ SELECTION: 15.05 YORK-DRAGON MALL E/W @ 25/1