Newmarket – Saturday 2nd October

Will Smith Betting Tips – Newmarket Saturday 2nd Oct (£150,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes)

The beginning of this week has a distinctly autumnal feel to it, and as the weather suggests, by the end of it we will be in October. One week away from the heralded first big meeting of the jumps season at Chepstow, and also some back-end highlights to still be savoured of the flat campaign, it is a time of year that can promise much as a punter.

The first of this week’s ante-post weekend recommendations is a nod to the month we will be entering, as the £150,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes at Newmarket at 2.20 on Saturday finds itself in the betting crosshairs.

Sales races are usually as eclectic a mix of horses as you can potentially find gracing the flat season – this Saturday’s event has the usual formula of proven Group performers, progressive handicappers, exposed maidens and intriguing once (or even none)-raced two-year-olds – as they converge over 6f of the Rowley course at Newmarket.

Official ratings are often the initial port of call for odds compilers when pricing up these races, and as is predictable, the likes of Fearby, Chipotle, Eve Lodge, Ernie’s Valentine and Tatsumaki have all been afforded respect with the initial quotes.

However, the 82-rated Bond Power, who has in excess of a stone to find with the 100+ horses at the head of the market, has a much better chance than the early quotes of 16/1 each-way with Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook and Unibet suggest.

Bond Power was a massively eye-catching debut second at Carlisle on soft ground, before filling third spot behind the classy Bosh and Gis A Sub in a hot York maiden event, on ground he perhaps found livelier than ideal.

Having shaped as if he had as much ability as that pair, who are now rated 95 and 106 for reference, Bond Power then ran as if he wasn’t concentrating at York next time. Most flat horses spend mid-season running themselves into form, however connections of Bond Power had different ideas for him after this showin.

A trip to the vets for a gelding operation had the perfect result, as Bond Power’s return to the racetrack at Beverley a month ago was a very impressive yet cosy win over 5f. On a track where it can be tricky to peg back the front-runners on fast ground, Bond Power easily manoeuvred himself into contention on the wide outside, and was dropped in front right on the line by regular pilot Graham Lee.

It is notable that instead of running in the similarly valuable sales-based Redcar Two-Year Trophy this Saturday, which would have been a lovely 30-minute jaunt north to the Teesside coast from Bryan Smart’s Hambleton base, the trainer clearly feels that the Newmarket race will be a better and more suitable option.

Given that a few of the market leaders for Saturday’s Tattersalls October Auction Stakes at 2.20 at Newmarket are also entered at Redcar, it could be a masterstroke by Smart to head south, and at 16/1 each-way with Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook or Unibet, we may get better than the three places currently offered, but I’d be confident we won’t get anywhere near the 16/1 for Bond Power.