Alex Hammond blog: Mandobi the pick of William Haggas dup in Ascot Lavazza Stakes

Sky Sports Racing presenter Alex Hammond returns with her weekly blog, including a look ahead to the Haydock Sprint Cup and an excellent Ascot card on Saturday.

After travelling the length of the country last week, I'm staying closer to home this week with trips to Windsor for the Racing League and then off to another of my favourites, Ascot, on Saturday.

There are a host of competitive handicaps to get stuck into at the larger of the Royal racecourses, which makes a pleasant change in the current climate. The most valuable of them is the £100,000 Lavazza Stakes, which has attracted a field of 11, a number that compares well to the field size over the past 10 years.

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Newmarket trainer William Haggas has won this a couple of times in recent years, so it's worth a second look at his declarations for this mile-and-a-half Heritage handicap. Sky Bet are offering four places, which will be useful in this competitive arena.

So, William Haggas saddles two in the race, La Yakel and Mandobi, but he's outnumbered by Charlie Appleby, who saddles four!

Of the Haggas duo, I prefer Mandobi marginally. He can be excused for his run at Royal Ascot as he was drawn wide and raced wide, and at Goodwood last time out the race didn't go perfectly for him as he was caught a bit wide at one point which saw him grab the bridle and run a bit too keenly.

He stayed on nicely though, beaten less than four lengths by Leger hope Secret State, so hopefully there is more to come. It's a wide-open race, with some beautifully bred three-year-olds, with bags of potential.

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We have full brothers to Cracksman (Frantastic) and Ghaiyyath (Al Nafir), plus First Ruler, who is out of a mare that cost Godolphin 3.7m guineas at the end of her career. So, a nice little contest that will take some winning.

With the four places on offer, I'm going to stick with Mandobi who is 17/2 with Sky Bet.

Over at Haydock the Betfair Sprint Cup is the highlight. As you'd expect, there's a strong line-up for the Group 1, including last year's winner Emaraaty Ana, who is back to defend his title and is 6/1 with Sky Bet to repeat it.

He ran his best race since last year's win in the Nunthorpe at York last time out and looks to be peaking at the right time. If Minzaal could win it would be great for Owen Burrows as he tries to rebuild his string after the restructuring of the Shadwell operation following the sad death of founder Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

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He hasn't exactly had to start from scratch, with the likes of Hukum staying with the Lambourn trainer, but his horsepower was cut dramatically, and he's done well with the horses that have remained.

Now is the time to attract new owners to the yard and the results he's had this year must have helped with that mission. The only blot on Minzaal's copybook came in the Platinum Jubilee at Royal Ascot, where the cheekpieces he wore for the first time didn't suit.

There's a little bit of rain around before Saturday and any of it at Haydock would suit this horse. Naval Crown needs to bounce back from a below-par run in France last time, but prior to that he had done nothing wrong since dropping down to sprint trips and is really getting into the swing of the tempo of these shorter races.

Rohaan has been magnificently handled by Dave Evans and it was some training performance to produce him to win back-to-back Wokingham handicaps.

He has since run really well in the Maurice de Gheest at Deauville and a return to the course and distance that he beat Dragon Symbol over in the 2021 Sandy Lane Stakes won't do him any harm.

Frankie is heading up to Haydock and he'll partner Kinross in the race. I'm not convinced dropping to six furlongs is ideal though.

Art Power was a bit keen on his seasonal return (behind Kinross) in the Sky Bet City of York Stakes last time out and he will be better with that run under his belt and back over six. I think he has a Group One in him, will it be on Saturday?

Brad The Brief is rated just one pound below the highest rated in the field, Naval Crown - he was in good form when we last saw him in May. He needs the rain to fall though, and the summer conditions haven't been kind to him since his last run.

It looks a brilliant renewal once again and I think Minzaal is the worthy favourite at 7/2 with Sky Bet. Given the firm are offering six places rather than three, I'll be going with Art Power at 15/2 to run into one of those places.