Steel City Cup Final Preview – Farloe to lead the Lister charge
If you’re a follower of trainer race patterns then you may wish to stay clear of one of the Charlie Lister runners in tonight’s Steel City Cup final.
There was a gap of 21 years between Lister's two wins in the competition, with Bandicoot Tipoki’s victory last year ending that barren run. But you could be a fool to rule out the lightly-raced Farloe Lee tonight who can profit from a plum draw in trap six.
The early pace inside coming from Elwick Chris, favourite Mill Pinpoint and Was Not Me looks as though it will cause crowding on the rails which should give Lister’s charge a clear passage round the outside, barring no spectacular trapping from Oneco Black. The only worry for the striped jacket is if one of the three aforementioned railers gets a free passage to the first bend, as the sectional times suggest, they could be hard to catch - especially Mill Pinpoint, who ran a scintillating 28.87secs in the heats.
Elsewhere on a tough looking card, it may prove wise to put all your eggs into just a couple of baskets instead of scattering your selections with some big-hitting multiples. The stand-out double to get involved with looks to be Blue Artisan in the 8.35 and Magna Venturer (nap) in the 9.25.
Bad traffic cost Artisan his place in the Betfred Select stakes at Nottingham last week, and he should possess far too much class, even if he isn’t at his best, to land the spoils in a far weaker race than the Select. Magna Venturer was the ante-post market leader for the Steel City Cup and was unlucky to run into an in-form Mill Pinpoint in the semi-finals which cost him a place in the final. Barry Draper holds this dog in high regard and has the superior form at Sheffield over his race rivals this evening, the only real danger to the selection looks to be kennelmate Moveit Jamie.
There is also small interest for a couple of selections who should come off the pace at a stamina-sapping Sheffield track. Droopys Flo in the opening race of the night at 7.40 was staying on well after a poor start last time out, and the same could be said for Bower Hawk in the 8.50, who is a notorious slow starter but ran Moveit Jamie very close at Nottingham recently.
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