Mark Johnston not rating Gulf Of Naples as the outright favourite for Northumberland Plate
Veteran trainer, Mark Johnston, is not rating his colt, Gulf Of Naples, as the outright favourite to claim the John Smith’s Northumberland Plate, which is scheduled to take place at Newcastle in England on Saturday, June 30, 2012.
The four-year-old runner has got a decent record, as he has managed to win four races out of ten. He performed really well in the Gold Cup at Ascot recently, securing the fourth spot. He was defeated by a margin of two lengths, which shows that he gave a tough time to the winner.
Gulf Of Naples will not be the only one representing Johnston in the race, as Eternal Heart and Becausewecan have also lined up for action at Newcastle. However, their chances of victory are less compared to the son of Dubawi, out of mare Kapria.
Johnston was confident that his trainees have got a decent chance in the upcoming event, but he refrained from making any big statements.
He added, “All three have come out of their races fine but it is still early days - they only ran on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday last week - and we will see how they are.” Furthermore, he was a bit surprised that his runners have been doing well on the heavy ground.
On the other hand veteran trainer, Donald McCain, will also be hopeful of a strong show in the Northumberland Plate. He will be represented by the six-year-old gelding, Il De Re, who is a seasoned runner, and has been delivering some solid results over the past few months.
Il De Re was victorious in his most recent outing at Chester, and is expected to be highly-competitive at Newcastle. His victory was a surprise for the bookies, as he did not get the best odds back then.
George Primarolo, a Betfred spokesman, was certain that McCain’s trainee will give a tough time to his opponents.
He claimed, “Donald McCain is a force to be reckoned with in big staying handicaps on the level and having trained Overturn to win a Northumberland Plate and Chester Cup he'll be looking to repeat the dose with Ile De Re at Newcastle this weekend.”
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