Pontefract preview: Cornborough can gain deserved success

Cornborough has been knocking on the door of late, and looks weighted to gain a deserved success in the 1m handicap on today’s card at Pontefract (14.45).

The Mark Walford trained gelding won on his debut at Redcar, before going on to finish a fine third in an apprentice handicap at Doncaster last October on soft ground off a mark of 74.

Cornborough is now able to race off a rating of 70, having returned to form and finished in the frame in his last three starts.

In the last of those the son of Sir Percy travelled strongly off the pace but got no luck in-running before staying on well to finish a never nearer 1 3/4 length third of 12 to Woody Bay at Haydock.

There is no doubt in my mind that Cornborough would have gone close to landing the spoils granted a clear passage, and the winner has come out and scored again since to give the form a solid look.

It was a performance which suggested Cornborough was at the top of his game, and he is able to race in this off an unchanged mark. He thus has major claims at the weights, and the four-year-old is relatively lightly-raced having had just 10 starts and remains open to further progress.

In the 1m 2f handicap (15.15), the well-treated Urban Moon can take advantage of a drop in grade to get back to winning ways.

The gelding was a dual winner in Ireland when trained by Johnny Murtagh, with the last of those successes coming in a class 1 handicap at the Curragh off a mark of 85.

Urban Moon then struggled in his next three starts after getting hit with a 10lb rise in the weights, but ran well on his final outing for Murtagh back in May when a 1 1/2 length fifth of 15 to Majenta in a competitive contest at the Curragh off 93.