Racing: Shades of Grey set to turn up heat at Bath

Published on 07/08/2012 00:00

SHADES Of Grey can complete a hat-trick in the Tracy Fillies’ Handicap at Bath.

The grey mare has just taken a little while to find her stride this season, but she got off the mark in some style at Newbury a month ago. She followed up under a 6lb penalty with the minimum of fuss and while that emphatic win earned her a stiff rise in the weights, Clive Cox has found her the perfect race in which to strike again.

The five-year-old has run well at Bath twice before, which adds further confidence.

Veteran sprinter Tax Free has been found the perfect opportunity to register his first victory of the year in the David Chapman Memorial Handicap at Ripon.

The ten-year-old has been a brilliant servant to trainer Dandy Nicholls down the years, plundering multiple Pattern races and valuable handicaps on his way to his current winning total of 15. Although he is perhaps not quite the force he once was, Tax Free has been running some heroic races in defeat of late in fiercely competitive heats.

He ran as well as he has for a while when third in the Sky Bet Dash at York late last month and he backed that up with a very creditable effort in Saturday’s Stewards’ Sprint Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. Although beaten into seventh, he only gave best in the final furlong and on paper at least, he faces a far easier assignment.

Despite the burden of top-weight, he looks sure to make his presence felt just three days after his latest appearance.

Awesome Pearl is just the sort of horse with which Sir Mark Prescott excels and must be followed in the Betfair Handicap at Kempton. A winner of a seven-furlong maiden here at two, the American-bred gelding was always going to appreciate a stiffer test of stamina this year.

He ran respectably in a classified race at Lingfield on his comeback before returning to Kempton to finish a close third on his handicap debut.

He steps up from a mile and a half to two miles and his current mark of 75 looks extremely workable.

SELECTIONS

Bath

2.00 Our Three Graces

2.30 Waspy

3.00 Sir Trevor

3.30 Trade Centre

4.00 Crimson Queen,

4.30 Lucky Diva

5.00 Shades Of Grey (nap)

5.30 April Ciel

Catterick

2.20 Excellent Mariner

2.50 Falcun

3.20 Ferdy

3.50 Mohawk Ridge

4.20 See Vermont

4.50 Eijaaz

5.20 Slenningford

Kempton

5.55 Darling Grace

6.25 Grandad Mac

6.55 Headline News

7.25 Intimidate

7.55 Awesome Pearl

8.25 Sir Maximilian

8.55 Lady Mango

Wolverhampton

2.10 Red Star Lady

2.40 Bold Diva

3.10 Pinball

3.40 Bridgehampton

4.10 Any Other Day

4.40 Remember Rocky

5.10 Dance Company

5.40 Red Refraction

Double

Shades of Grey

5:00 Bath

Awesome Pearl

7:55 Kempton