Our horse racing tipster covers the three Class 1 races from the third day of Haydock’s Summer Social festival.
Live In The Dream (1.50pm)
Winner of last year’s Nunthorpe, beating Highfield Princess in the process, front-running Live In The Dream finished the 2023 campaign in America, where he had two good fourth-placed finishes.
The most notable came at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Again attempting to make all, he pulled slightly early on to give jockey Sean Kirrane some work to do. This left the horse with not quite having enough left in the tank in the final furlong and he faded, barely holding on to a prize money finish.
He was second here in the Group 2 Temple Stakes on his 2024 reappearance. This race marks a significant further drop in Grade and, with more favourable track conditions, he should stay in front all the way to the line this time around.
Sapphire Seas (3pm)
After a promising start to her career when, despite a very poor start and greenness throughout, she stayed on for fourth. She then proceeded to go undefeated for the rest of her three-year-old campaign with the best performance being the two-and-a-half length victory at Yarmouth in a listed race on September 20.
She had five months off before racing in a Group 2 in Dubai, where she was sent off as the 1/2 favourite but was defeated by her stablemate, subsequent Keeneland Group 1 second English Rose. She found Bluestocking to be simply too good for her on British reappearance three weeks ago in the Middleton Stakes, finishing fourth after losing two places very late on.
This race however represents much calmer waters and she can regain her winning form here, up in trip.
Pogo (3.35pm)
A wide open race with plenty of horses in with a chance of winning, the John of Gaunt Stakes should be fascinating. Noble Dynasty and Ramazan stepping up in class after good handicap performances and Witch Hunter easing in grade after coming third in the Lockinge are all of interest. However, a rejuvenated Pogo who has seemingly rediscovered his previous form might be able to beat them all.
Ten runs since his last win in October 2022, Pogo delivered a surprisingly good performance in October of last year at Paris Longchamp in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret, coming fourth after being sent off at 80/1.
However, he was slightly disappointing in the Bet365 Mile on reappearance at Sandown six weeks ago, finishing fourth after racing too freely. He put that behind him when coming a neck second (with Witch Hunter back in third) to Shartash in a listed race here last month. Any improvement on that performance will see him break his winless run.