Soft Ground Lover Addeybb Offers York Value

Addeybb, trained by William Haggas looks to have a leading chance in the Group Two York Stakes, the feature race of a seven race card at York on Saturday. He holds leading claims for the race on any ground, but he much prefers rain softened ground and if you believe the forecast, that is exactly what he is going to get. Rain is forecast for York non-stop from Friday evening right up until the meeting on Saturday and all through it. That will make conditions perfect for him, and he is taken to land another Group Two success after his first back in 2018.

The ground poses a double-edged sword, with the main market rival to Addeybb and current favourite, Regal Reality, not considered a horse who needs soft. He has ran on heavy once and was below par, and his good form this season has all been on good to firm ground. There is nothing to suggest he won’t handle it, but if he doesn’t, which could be the case, then not only does it act as a positive for Addeybb but it is a negative for Regal Reality.

Both of these horses have very good form in the book from this season, and Addeybb comes here on the back of a win at Royal Ascot, where the ground was soft. That was the listed Wulfreton Stakes but anyone who remembers that race and the field assembled for it will know that it was only a listed race by name, and actually looking at the runners it was the same kind of standard to the Group Two races that were ran at the meeting.

Addeybb won a shade cosily on that day, and was value for more than the two and a half length winning margin. He had things in the bag and was eased down, remember, this is a race that had the looks of a Group Two beforehand, the same level of race that he runs in here.

The last time we saw Regal Reality he was chasing home Enable and lost nothing in defeat when finishing a very good third in the Eclipse, less than three lengths behind the wonder mare. Prior to that he won a Group Three at Sandown by nearly four lengths, and looked to be a horse on the up. The big question mark I have here is the ground, he looks short in the betting for someone who has a question mark hanging over that.

Elsewhere, the only other two horses capable of getting involved here are Bangkok, although he looks a tad below the level needed to win this and Elarqam, who was well behind Addeybb at Royal Ascot when they met.

That leaves Addeybb as the selection for me, he is a proven Group Two contender, comes here in really good form and the rain is going to prove a huge positive to his chances on the day. Regal Reality deserves plenty of respect, but I don’t think he has the beating of Addeybb on this occasion.