Bill Esdaile

THIS weekend’s big puzzle to solve is the Cambridgeshire (3:40pm). Only one favourite has obliged in the last decade, while we’ve had a 50/1 winner and two at 40/1. There’s often a likeable, unexposed three-year-old in the line-up that attracts plenty of ante-post support, and this year is no different with Roi De France the [...]

SIR Michael Stoute’s career has been littered with remarkable training performances, but managing to win a Group One with one of his final top-level runners would be some feat. The master of Freemason Lodge is set to retire at the end of the season and is due to run the unbeaten ANNA SWAN in Friday’s [...]

AFTER Longchamp’s Arc weekend the top-class racing continues this week, with Group One contests on both Friday and Saturday’s cards at Newmarket. Saturday’s Dewhurst traditionally provides key Classic clues for next season and, at the moment, Ballydoyle and Godolphin hold seven of the eight entries. With Aidan O’Brien accounting for five, and most of those [...]

SINCE being introduced in 2011, Ascot’s British Champions Day fixture has provided the chance to see many stars of the Flat season for a final time before attention turns to the Jumps. Recent rain has turned the Ascot going soft and with up to 17mm of rain forecast for Friday, the conditions could be attritional [...]

SATURDAY’S feature race, the Group One Champion Stakes (3.55pm), sees an intriguing clash between the hugely exciting Economics and emphatic Royal Ascot winner Calandagan. The former broke through at the highest level in the Irish version of this last time, while the latter was the only one to ruffle City Of Troy’s feathers in the [...]

DONCASTER is the setting for the final Group One of the British Flat season this weekend, the William Hill Futurity Stakes (2.40pm). In recent years this mile contest has had a real impact on the Classics the following season, with three of the last five winners – Auguste Rodin, Mac Swiney and Kameko – all [...]

SUNDAY’S Old Roan at Aintree (1.50pm) is another clear indicator that the Jumps season is firmly kicking into gear, as we regularly see some of the best jumpers around use the race to start their campaigns. The great Kauto Star began his magical 2006-2007 Gold Cup-winning season with victory in the event, but also managed [...]

WITH the Jumps back in full swing and top-class Flat action from across the pond at the Breeders’ Cup, this Saturday promises to provide nearly 12 hours of racing and is not to be missed. Ascot hosts its first Jumps meeting of the season and with the unseasonably dry weather, Chris Stickels and his ground [...]

SATURDAY is a truly international day of top-class racing with the Breeders’ Cup taking place in Del Mar, California. City Of Troy is the star attraction at the meeting as he attempts to become the first European-trained horse to win the Grade One Breeders’ Cup Classic (9:41pm) on dirt since 1993. However, I’m not convinced [...]

THREE days of Cheltenham’s November Meeting bring some top-class Jumps action to the table this week, but putting anything up ante-post at the moment is far from easy with so little rain around. Jumps trainers throughout Britain and Ireland are crying out for rain so they can get a run into their horses, without having [...]