British champions series: fantasy racing 2014

There is now the chance to make two changes to jockeys and/or trainers in the stable before the next British Champions Series (BCS) race, the Juddmonte International Stakes at York on 20 August.

So it is useful to look at performances so far this season and see who could be a useful addition to the stable and who is not cutting the racing mustard.

Jockeys

There are 14 jockeys who have scored more than 100 points so far, with Kieren Fallon (group B) leading the way with 380 points.

Not unexpectedly, 10 out of the 14 jockeys come from groups A (4) and B (6). Maxime Guyon (E) is the best performing jockey from the other groups and has earned 175 points thanks to Miss France in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.

At the other end of the board, 13 jockeys have scored fewer than 50 points and 7/13 come from groups D and E.

Jockeys in group B - Dettori, Doyle, Hanagan, Atzeni, Fallon, Crowley, Soumillon - seem to have been the key to success so far. Fallon (380) and Hanagan (233) are in first and second on the leaderboard and have won 5 races between them.

But getting any points from the lower groups D and E is a big bonus. Five jockeys have scored no points at all, having had no rides, and 4/5 were from groups D and E.

Trainers

Trainers in group A have won 15 out of 22 races in the BCS so far in 2014. Richard Hannon and John Gosden account for 9 of these wins between them.

But with only one trainer allowed per group, a stable can only have a portion of group A's overall success.

Again, the lower groups are low scoring and anything your stable can pick up is a bonus. 9/15 of the trainers with fewer than 50 points are from groups D and E.

Mark Johnston (330 points) is clear at the top of the table thanks to Somewhat (100/1) holding on for third place in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.

Overall, only 8 trainers have earned more than 100 points and the remainder are quite close together.

There is much to ponder before the York meeting and inevitably whoever you switch out of your stable will then pop up with a 25/1 winner in the very next race!

Royal Ascot 2013: A New Generation Of Jockeys

With the likes of Kieren Fallon and Frankie Dettori failing to notch a winner at the Royal Ascot meeting in 2013 it did have the feel of a changing of the guard in the jockeys’ ranks, as some of the younger names came to the fore.

Joseph O’Brien is still only 20 years old but has already won a host of big international races. At the Royal meeting in 2013 he recorded three wins, finishing second in the top jockey table behind Johnny Murtagh.

25-year-old James Doyle matched O’Brien’s three wins in the space of just three rides, with an incredible hat-trick of victories on the second afternoon of the Royal meeting. Al Kazeem’s win in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes was the jockey’s first Royal Ascot winner.

It was also good to see some recent champion apprentices be successful at the Royal Meeting. The likes of William Buick (champion apprentice 2008), Tom Queally (2004), and Martin Harley (2011) all had a winner each.

Adam Kirby, Richard Kingscote, and Billy Lee were three more young jockeys who put in notable winning performances at Royal Ascot 2013.

Race Day Betting: Investec Oaks

Several of today’s Oaks contenders performed well in the preparatory races, be it Talent in the Pretty Polly Stakes, Moth in the Qipco 1000 Guineas, or Secret Gesture in the Oaks Trial Stakes. There is clearly a lot of potential in a number of runners, making them hard to rule out.

Secret Gesture has the highest rating in the race but looks very short at 9/4, given the potential of her rivals and the poor strike rate of favourites in the race in recent years (3 winning favourites in last 10 runnings, including one joint-favourite; 1 winning favourite in last 5 runnings).

The selection is Banoffee, trained by Hughie Morrison. The filly was supplemented for the race at a cost of £30,000 after winning the Cheshire Oaks round the curves at Chester. She came from off the pace to win well, suggesting she will handle the Oaks' course and distance.

Jockey Kieren Fallon rode her at Chester and he is aboard again for the Oaks and this is another point in Banoffee’s favour. Fallon rides the Epsom course well and has three Derby and four Oaks victories on his record. Fallon has no scheduled ride in tomorrow’s Derby, indeed Banoffee is his only ride across the entire Derby meeting. I believe Fallon will be keen to show his abilities on the big stage.

Banoffee is available at 10/1 with William Hill.