Mister Music to hit the right notes

Sunday's aren't usually a great day for British racing but today we have a very nice meeting from the home of the Derby at Epsom Downs with some competitive handicaps & a conditions race with a seemingly underestimated favourite. We're hoping for more success than yesterday where a crawling pace did for Alanza's chances in the Sun Chariot Stakes & a strange ride gave Questioning little chance to get involved in the Cambridgeshire.

(Richard Hughes will be looking for multiple winners today)

At 2.30 we have a 4 runner conditions race where Mister Music looks like facing his easiest task for some time & can take advantage at odds of 5/6. Richard Hannon's colt won his 2nd start in good style before finihing 3rd in another 4 runner affair where subsequent Group 3 winner Crius was successful, he's then finished 4th in a Listed contest where the hugely promising Fencing won & in his latest race was just a neck behind yesterday's Group 2 Royal Lodge favourite Farhaan. That form has been good enough to attain a rating of 92 from the handicapper & the lack of a win seems less to do with attitude & more to do with the horses he's run into. Mister Music's opponents today don't look up to the same class with Hint Of Mint & Surrey Storm both finishing 3rd in very ordinary maidens at Chepstow & Lingfield respectively, both wuld need to improve massively to challenge our pick. David Simcock saddles Gabrial's Gift who should offer up some resistance after improving last time to land an auction maiden in some style after a positive  James Doyle ride, that form is still away off what will be needed if Mister Music runs to his level & an early bet is advised before the weight of money forces the price in.

At 3.35 we have a £15,000 handicap between some decent sorts that looks competitive on paper meaning we can find a good priced winner. Two horses in the race won last time out with Colour Scheme stepping up from 3 disappointing rns to win at Yarmouth & Ramona Chase gaining a deserved success at Goodwood after a string of creditable placings. A Yarmouth win isn't exactly great stuff though & Ramona Chase whilst having a positive due to being a course & distance winner has been unable to win all season off of marks around 5 pounds lower than today's new mark until last time. Godolphin's Con Artist seems underpriced for a horse having only its 2nd run of the year after disappointing off of this mark on its season debut back in May, that's now 4 months ago & it would be asking a lot to win this race, Bin Suroor has had only 2 winners from his last 46 runners in the past 2 weeks. Right Step is a classy sort & might be getting down to a realistic winning mark but finishes of 9th out of 10 & 18th 20 in his last two runs is offputting & we're much more interested in the claims of Roman Eagle. Roger Varian has his string in fine order with 8 winners from 30 runners in the past fortnight & his colt seems to be the horse with most potential for improvement having only had 2 runs this year & 5 in total, Those 5 runs include two wins & one was at Epsom in a two runner affair where he beat Cafe Elektric, a horse that has subsequently been running in big money races at Woodbine, Roman Eagle's runs this year have been just decent but that means we can take advantage of odds of 9/2 with Stan James for the only horse likely to be able to dominate this contest.

Selections:

2.30 Epsom - Mister Music at 5/6 (general)

3.35 Epsom - Roman Eagle at 9/2 (Stan James)