Sport

Burguillos can reign for King

Alan King is more renowned as a National Hunt trainer but he has had a decent spell on the Flat this summer and can make more headway at York this afternoon.

Burguillos’s last appearance came on the Knavesmire during the Dante festival when he was sent off at odds of 3/1 in a mile-and-a-half handicap on soft ground.

The four-year-old chestnut did not win on a surface that would not really have been up his ally, yet he still did well to stick to the task to finish second.

Though that was a creditable run, it is interesting that King has decided to revert to a mile-and-a-quarter with him in the Peter ‘Sooty’ Sutton Memorial Handicap.

Burguillos did some serious damage over that trip at Leicester on May 9 when he charged gamely clear of Wapping, who won at Brighton earlier in the week and is now on a hat-trick.

King’s inmate is a great deal higher in the weights, but he is clearly still in fine fettle and should enjoy himself on the faster ground and over a shorter distance.

Gothic Empire is respected in the seven-furlong handicap for the James Fanshawe team.

The five-year-old gelding is only 3lb higher than when he won at Ascot last September and did not run too badly at Yarmouth last month – despite having missed the break.

This does not look a great race by York’s standards and yet Gothic Empire could still be overpriced.

Pastoral Player loves it at Goodwood and can be trusted to run with honour in the seven-furlong apprentice handicap back at the Sussex circuit.

It should also pay to throw a few bob in the direction of Halawain, who was a good third at Pontefract since having been gelded and might well thrive over a longer trip in the seven-furlong handicap at Sandown.

Frantical should go quite nicely in the mile-and-a-quarter handicap at Chepstow.

The five-year-old gelding has been in reasonable nick this season and made a nice bit of headway in an apprentice handicap at Nottingham last time to finish third.

That effort perhaps deserves to be upgraded a smidgen, too, as Frantical likes to come from off the pace, which was distinctly lacking at Colwick Park.

The Nottingham form also receives a boost as the winner that day, Miningrocks, has since gone in again.

It should not require a great deal of improvement for Frantical to win a small race like this.

Nap: Burguillos

(2:20: York)

Double: Gothic Empire

(3:30: York)

Treble: Pastoral Player

(6:35: Goodwood)

Yankee: Frantical

(7:00: Chepstow)