The Craven Meeting was held over Wednesday and Thursday last week (17-18 April 2013) at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile course. Historically, the Craven Meeting acted as a good guide for horses to watch later in the season and for the Classics. It is certainly worth spending the time watching the races a few times for horses that look like they could progress as the season goes on – such horses are not necessarily those that won their race at the Craven Meeting.
Sir Henry Cecil had a successful meeting, sending out Hot Snap to win the Nell Gwyn Stakes for fillies on the Wednesday and Tickled Pink to win the Abernant Stakes on Thursday.
One feature of the Craven Meeting is strongly fancied horses being beaten early on in the season. Six of the 16 races were won by the favourites over the two days. John Gosden’s Ghurair was even money favourite for the valuable 200,000 Tattersalls Millions 3yo Trophy but was beaten into a narrow third by Mark Johnston’s Windhoek and Greatwood for Luca Cumani.
Sir Henry Cecil’s Stipulate (15/8 favourite) was beaten into second by Mull Of Killough in the Earl Of Sefton Stakes, whilst Sky Lantern (11/4 favourite) finished second behind Hot Snap in the Nell Gwyn Stakes.
Richard Hannon’s three-year-old Toronado (8/11 favourite) looked impressive when winning the Craven Stakes, albeit in small four-runner field. Richard Hughes made every yard of the running in the mile contest and only really faced a half-heated challenge from Dundonnell at the two furlong post. The High Chaparral colt is now unbeaten in four runs and is currently 3/1 second favourite for the Qipco 2000 Guineas, which will be run over the same course and distance on 4 May 2013.
It was a shame that the Craven Meeting was not shown on terrestrial television, given the meeting’s position at the start of the Flat season.
Channel 4 Racing said: “90 days per year is the biggest commitment to racing Channel 4 has ever shown, but unfortunately the Craven Meeting is among those to miss out.”
I would have preferred to have been able to watch at least one day of the Craven Meeting on Channel 4 rather than the Saturday’s mediocre racing they showed from Kempton (all weather) and Doncaster on the weekend (13 April) prior to the Craven.
It is certainly true that the Craven Meeting does not have the importance it once did as a trial for the bigger races later in the season – as shown by the relatively small fields for Craven Stakes, Earl Of Sefton Stakes, and Feilden Stakes – but either day of the meeting still had more merit from a racing perspective than the previous Saturday’s fare.
