Fascinating clash on the cards for Racing League curtain-raiser at Yarmouth

‘It’s fantastic for Yarmouth and it’s our most lucrative race day of the year’.

There is a blockbuster clash to bring the curtain up on the new Racing League season, with the Juddmonte-owned Midair taking on Sir Michael Stoute’s Believe In Stars in the GBP 75,000 finale at Yarmouth.

Now in its fourth year, there was a thrilling finish to the competition in 2023 with Kevin Blake’s Ireland proving victorious in a dramatic conclusion at Southwell, narrowly pipping Wales & The West by seven points.

And it could return with a bang as Yarmouth is all set to welcome back the seven regional teams for the opening night of action on Thursday.

The feature Weekly Rewards With tote Stayers Club Racing League Race 7 Handicap concludes the seven-race card, with Stoute’s Believe In Stars attempting to build on his near miss on his return at Windsor for Classic-winning owner Saeed Suhail and Chris Hughes’ East region.

Standing in his way is Harry Charlton’s Midair, who would usually sport the famous silks of Juddmonte but on this occasion will be wearing the red of Wales & The West.

Beaten a neck on his first run since being gelded, the son of Frankel steps up for another crack at 10 furlongs.

“He’s a beautiful horse, we thought we might be in a higher grade at this time of the year but he’s bumped into a couple of good horses, to be fair,” said Barry Mahon, European racing manager for Juddmonte.

“Going through the form lines he has bumped into plenty of 90-plus rated horses in maidens and he’s been a little bit quirky at times hence he’s been gelded.

“I think in a good handicap like this they will go a good pace, which will suit him better. He’s down at the bottom of the weights there, but I think he has a chance of running well and after being gelded he should keep improving after that.

“The Racing League has great prize-money on offer and in the modern era we always complain about prize-money so when you are putting on prize-money like that, you have to give it a go.”

It was Jamie Osborne’s Wales & The West team which lit up the Yarmouth curtain raiser 12 months ago, with daughter Saffie Osborne firing home a treble which went some way to helping her defend her leading jockey crown.

The Racing League was paying its first visit to the east coast on that occasion and the course’s general manager Tom Pennington is delighted to see the track host Racing League action once again, with 84 of a maximum 98 runners declared across the card.

He said: “It’s a very good card and there’s some strong fields, which I suppose there should be for more than GBP 300,000 in prize-money up for grabs.

“It’s fantastic for Yarmouth and it’s our most lucrative race day of the year. We had a fantastic night of the year last year and we’re hoping for more of the same this time around.

“It’s a great initiative and we’re fully behind the Racing League. We had a great turnout last year and hopefully that will be replicated again.”

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