Future Champions Day tips and odds for Newmarket: City Of Troy odds-on for Group 1
Newmarket is back under the spotlight on Saturday's racecard with the Future Champions Day meeting.
Featuring seven races including four group races and a listed race, but the star is the Group 1 Native Trail's Dewhurst Stakes.
This year's showstopper is name after the 2021 winner Native Trail, the Godolphin owned and Charlie Appleby-trained colt.
2023 may not see a Godolphin winner if the odds are to be believed, as Aidan O'Brien's City Of Troy is an early odds-on favourite despite a huge amount of entries still in the running for the max 20-runner race.
Elsewhere on the day, the Group meetings hold plenty of potential with the Emirates Autumn Stakes for two-year-olds featuring a few future stars as the opener of the day.
And the 3.15 Ghaiyyth Zetland Stakes contested over 1m2f, also for two-year-olds also holds plenty of value.
Newmarket betting tips
1.25: Arabian Crown 9/2 & Chief Little Rock 8/1
The Autumn Stakes is for two-year-olds over 1m over the famous Rowley mile.
Arabian Crown and Ancient Wisdom, both trained by Charlie Appleby have virtually the same form with two wins and a third place to their names.
Ancient Wisdom is the favourite early on in the betting on the antepost, despite coming third last time out.
But that form has worked out very well so it wouldn't be a surprise to see who William Buick ends up saddling.
Ancient Wisdom placed third as the 7/4f behind Rosallion and Al Musmak back in July in listed company and the winner has gone on to place third at Doncaster in a Group 2 Champagne Stakes and then winning the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere earlier this month at the Arc meeting.
If Ancient Wisdom can improve further he will likely be right up there at the finish based on that form with Rosallion - especially as he's been waited with since July.
Arabian Crown has continued to improve though and is even rated higher after a strong debut and two successive victories including in listed company last time out, ahead of Arabic Legend and Son, which was a comfortable win.
Navy Seal has Group form coming fourth in September at the Curragh, as does Legend Of Time, another Godolphin runner who came fifth at Newmarket's Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes.
But Arabian Crown looks the part already having won well at Sandown on soft ground and then put in a good time when eased up at the finish at Salisbury subsequently.
2.00: City Of Troy 4/7
City Of Troy may well be a heavy odds-on price but his form speaks for itself and has been waited with patiently from the Aidan O'Brien yard making it even more tempting to go for him in this.
He emerged on debut as the clear winner at the Curragh in July and just two weeks after that put in a huge Group 2 performance to win by over six lengths ahead of Haatem, who was rated 102 at the time.
It's still unclear how good this horse is but with the market already giving a big indication on each of his outings it's clear what's thought of this horse, a potential star.
2.40: Yorkindness 33/1, Geremia 50/1, Jesse Evans 14/1
The Cesarewitch Handicap is a Class 2 contest over the stamina testing 2m2f for staying flat racers.
Pied Piper the Grade 1 hurdler has decent flat form and is looking to justify favouritism in a huge field, with a maximum of 34 runners.
But at this price it's hard to justify while there are some horses carrying so little in regards to weight they have a golden opportunity with their form and stamina at each-way prices.
Yorkindness is a massive price despite a fairly good performance in fourth at Chester behind Tashkan, but she'll be getting firmer ground which she seems to prefer which can make a huge difference over this trip.
At similar weights Geremia who on just reading the form may be overlooked as he has been dropped in trip in the last two runs, despite seemingly being better suited to around 2m.
He finished just over four lengths off of Sweet William in July and has strong form over this trip of late.
Jesse Evans is an interesting runner at seven-years-old, a gelding out of the Noel Meade yard, who is remarkably consistent on the flat.
He recorded a great fourth place finish in the Irish Cesarewitch in September from 30 runners despite a huge rise in the weights from a previous win at Killarney.
Hasn't raced on the flat in Britain before but that shouldn't be an issue for this nice each-way horse who is given a huge chance carrying 6lb below his actual rating.
3.15: Arabian Crown 11/10
The odds of both Godolphin frontrunners in the first race of the day are probably best explained by the potential of running in either the 1.25 or the 3.15.
Arabian Crown is also 11/10 favourite for this while Ancient Wisdom, who clearly might prefer the mile instead of this 1m2f trip is out to 8/1.
As a result, for now it's worth siding with Arabian Crown with both while waiting on the official confirmation and declarations later this week.
The colt by Dubawi looks set to relish stepping up in trip and Capulet's poorer showing last time out helps sway that decision further.
The O'Brien-trained horse was 7/4 favourite in the Royal Lodge Stakes here in late September but couldn't get going and finished third behind Ghostwriter and Al Musmak.
He does have excuses and his form behind Diego Velazquez could still point to a big run but he certainly needs to settle into these races to emerge in front come the finish.
All odds correct at time of writing
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