Doncaster Placepot: Monday May 13

Doncaster stages an excellent card on Monday.

Timeform's Matt Gardner tackles a competitive card at Doncaster in Monday's attempt to land the Placepot...

14:10 - The opening race is chock full of well-bred three-year-old's hailing from powerful stables, with several carrying heft price tags. One such example is the William Haggas-trained Matrooh, who cost $550,000 as a yearling and boasts a taking US pedigree; his debut effort in the Wood Ditton was promising and there is plenty of improvement on the cards. Mutajally, a half-brother to 2000 Guineas hero Makfi, finished just three-quarters of a length behind Matrooh at Newmarket and is of definite interest here whilst stablemate Defendant showed plenty at Windsor last month and seems likely to take a step forward now. 

14:40 - We need to be very mindful of the number of lines we are using here, particularly with a couple of open contests still to come, so we shall take something of a chance here by selecting a banker in a race featuring five newcomers. The one of most interest is Canyari, trained by Richard Fahey, whose successful siblings include the speedy Barack. He is by first-season sire Dandy Man, whose early runners have done well, and he seems likely to go well on debut with his yard in flying form. 

15:15 - Iggy and Knight Owl are the two we want on side in the third leg. The first mentioned improved from his debut to score at Wolverhampton in January, beating Sewn Up by a length and a half, and he strikes as being capable of further progress now sent handicapping. Knight Owl is yet to win a race but cost plenty as a yearling, 155,000 gns to be precise, and was only just touched off on handicap debut at Kempton 12 days ago. 

15:50 - A non-runner has made this slightly more difficult but we are still fairly content to bank upon the David O'Meara-trained Grandorio, who runs here under a penalty incurred for a simple success at Newcastle on his seasonal reappearance. This race is a bit tougher but he is clearly in fine fettle and boasts leading claims. 

16:25 - Excuses for King Of Jazz are wearing really thin on the ground now and he is one we want to take on, though we want three strings to our bow just to be one the safe side. Alejandro is the first one to make the cut, with his mark having slipped to an appealing level, and we also want to take Zacynthus, who looks to have been galvanised by a switch to the yard of Luca Cumani and made an encouraging return at Thirsk last month. It definitely pays to have some consistency on side in a Placepot and Al's Memory boasts plenty of that having run to a similar level on each of his last five starts; if doing so once more he ought to be right in the firing line. 

17:00 - Bobs Her Uncle and Cheers For Thea are closely matched on their Redcar form, with the latter of particular interest here, but Apache Glory is difficult to ignore having landed the hat-trick at Beverley last time. She remains feasibly treated on the pick of her turf form and seems certain to make a decent fist of securing the four-timer. 

Selections:
14:10 - 4, 8, 9
14:40 - 1
15:15 - 2, 7
15:50 - 3
16:25 - 2, 6, 12
17:00 - 1
= 18 lines

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