Stake Acclaim to Land Nottingham Feature

Nottingham host a seven race card on Tuesday afternoon and the feature race of the meeting is their sprint conditions race at 3:30pm. Five horses are scheduled to go to post in this one, but the top three on the race card are the ones to concentrate on, and they look set to play out what should be an interesting finish. The horse of note for me is Stake Acclaim, a horse who has done nothing wrong at all so far this season, winning a good handicap off a big weight before finishing fourth in a listed contest in the mud. He has his sights lowered a little here after that listed race, and he is the one to be with looking at them.

One thing this horse won’t mind is a little further rain and should that arrive then it would certainly enhance his chances. The ground is forecast to be good to soft on Tuesday, which suits him fine but should we get any rain to make it soft all over then that would not harm his chances at all, and would probably improve them.

When winning at Newbury to kick start his season, he was very impressive and did it in the style of a horse that could run in group races this season. He won off a mark of 101 by two and three quarter lengths. He has ran well off similar marks in the past, so this was no fluke, and it gave us all something to be excited about.

We then didn’t see him until June, when he went up to Haydock to finish fourth in a decent listed race in the mud. The ground was bad that day, but he fared well enough in the race and although he was back in fourth, he was less than four lengths off the winner.

He’s had a little break since that run and comes here for his return. On both of those runs he would have a very solid chance in this, and being a front runner there should be no complications with the size of the field here.

Both Kyllang Rock and Tarboosh offer strong opposition in the race, and both horses have shown that their marks in the low 100s are a fair reflection on their ability. However, based on what we have seen from him so far, I am siding with Stake Acclaim in this one, everything looks primed for a big run from him.