Farewell Flat Handicap – Doncaster – Saturday 26th October

Last season, once joining David O’Meara midway through it, Aberama Gold proved to be something of a revelation in winning three big sprint handicaps and bagging just shy of £190,000 in the process for connections.

That he did so elicited a 12lbs climb in the handicap, and he began this season on just about a career high mark. It was always going to prove to be a tricky first half of the season given this rating, and the prevalence of ground sounder than he ideally prefers.

However, the last three runs of Aberama Gold’s season have been eye-catchingly better. Due to the early season malaise, he has dropped to a handicap mark 13lbs lower than that from which he hosed up in last season’s renewal of the Join Century Racing Club Today Handicap at Doncaster at 2.05 on Saturday. For betting purposes, this race may appear as the ‘Farewell Flat Handicap’ as a late sponsor has presumably changed the official race title.

At 6/1 generally each-way for 4 places now, Aberama Gold is a 2-star ** ante-post selection for WhichBookie, to win the race for the second year running. Given there are 20 entries, it might be that locking in that price and place terms is beneficial, as one or two of the entries would have other options and/or might not enjoy the ground, which is described as ‘soft’ all over currently and unlikely to change much.

6/1 is skinny enough for this type of ante-post bet, but I genuinely feel he could be a good deal shorter come the day, as this looks to be the culmination of a bit of a long-term plan.

As stated, Aberama Gold has shown much more spark at York and Catterick on his last two starts, when on both occasions he did so from hugely disadvantageous draws. The draw can sometimes play a factor at Doncaster also, but given there are a few pace-setters in the entries, it is hoped that he will at least have a sound tempo to aim at, which proved to be so beneficial to his performance in the race last season.

The final piece of the jigsaw, given O’Meara has got him that spectacularly handicapped that he will run off an extremely low weight in Saturday’s race, is the early booking of the best light-weight jockey riding right now (and perhaps ever for that matter), Hollie Doyle.

Everything is in place for a massive run for Aberama Gold, hence why I feel taking the 2-star ** ante-post recommendation at 6/1 each-way generally for 4 places now is a wise move.