Chelmsford City Tips: Unraced Burke filly could be the one

Twilight all-weather flat action comes from Chelmsford on Thursday – eight races on the Polytrack, between 17.00 and 20.20.

Billy Loughnane, Hayley Turner, David Probert and Harry Davies are some of my favourite jocks who’ll be here chasing prize-money.

Respectable field sizes, and competitive heats. Bring it on.

17.30 – Graceful Mary @ 3/1

I don’t usually do this but my selection Graceful Mary is an unraced 2-yr-old filly! She’s nicely bred by Blue Point out of an Elnadim mare, and trained by the master-handler of young horses Karl Burke.

So – we’re taking her talent completely on trust. My thoughts are that Karl will not be travelling down all the way from Middleham Moor if he doesn’t think this is a suitable place to start the filly’s career. His record speaks for itself – and she’s bred to be smart.

I looked at the opposition against her and couldn’t get terribly excited about any of them, frankly. The brilliant Billy Loughnane rides Bulldog Drummond for George Boughey, but this one is thoroughly exposed. David Probert rides an unraced Jack Channon entry, and could be a danger.

I kept coming back, however, to the Burke filly, and I’m going to take a chance, to sensible stakes, that she knows her job well enough to prevail. Shane Gray takes the mount.

19.30 – Masterclass @ 7/2

By way of contrast Masterclass is an experienced 4-yr-old gelding, competing over this sprint trip of 6f. Trained by David Simcock, and ridden by Callum Shepherd, he picked up a little race at Yarmouth in August.

A couple of modest displays followed, but then after a little freshen-up break he ran very well at Kempton last time, finishing well to be second to the useful Digital (another Karl Burke inmate).

This race is the ‘Fireworks Spectacular’ handicap, but in truth there’s little terribly spectacular about the entries, and I’m very hopeful that Masterclass, who finished with purpose at Kempton, can do the business here.

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