Doncaster Preview: Socks too smart for rivals

Smarty Socks has been a terrific servant over the years and with conditions to suit can notch his first success of the season in the 7f classified contest at Doncaster this evening (7.35).

The David O’Meara trained 10-year-old has won 13 of his 73 starts on the level, and they include three successes over course and distance.

The gelding relishes quick ground, and has needed a few starts to blow away the cobwebs in previous years before getting on the scoresheet.

The son of Elnadim nows comes into this on the back of three runs, and has shown enough in the last two of those to suggest he should now be spot on to do himself justice.

The conditions of this race certainly suit Smarty Socks, and this look a nice opportunity for the veteran to get back in the winners’ enclosure in the hands of Danny Tudhope.

Burren View Lady is incredibly well-handicapped on the turf compared to the all-weather, and looks to have been found a glorious opportunity to take advantage in the 5f handicap that opens proceedings (5.55).
The Tim Easterby trained filly improved dramatically on the polytrack over the winter, with her last win coming a class 4 contest at Wolverhampton off a mark of 79.

The daughter of Dansili was put up to 83 after that victory and is now able to run off just 69.

That gives Burren View Lady a massive chance from a handicapping perspective, and the four-year-old comes into the contest on the back of a cracking third to Iffranesia over course and distance 13 days ago.

That race was a class 4 affair, and Burren View Lady now gets into this lower grade class 5 contest off the same mark.

Easterby also saddles an interesting runner in the 1m 2f handicap (8.40) in the shape of Prophesy.

The gelding hasn’t won since scoring at Carlisle back in August 2012 off a mark of 79 when trained by Declan Carroll.

The five-year-old got put up to 85 for that victory, and went on to run some solid races to be placed last season.