It’s Northumberland Plate Day at Newcastle and nineteen runners line up for the 2m½f feature race.
Golden Rules has been heavily backed in the 2m½f Northumberland Place Handicap (2:05) following bullish comments made by owner Gareth Cheshire. The horse was purchased from the Oppenheimer family in November 2022 and was off the track for 638 days before returning in winning fashion for new trainer Deborah Faulkner in a 2m Kempton Park handicap. His fourth in the 2021 2m4f Ascot Stakes confirms the six-year-old gelding will stay and he boasts a useful all-weather record (2-4). With further improvement likely on his second start after a lengthy lay-off and the booking of Oisin Murphy catching the eye, it's easy to see why Golden Rules has been supported in the market.
Richard Hughes' Calling The Wind produced a couple of notable performances during the 2022 campaign, including a third-placed finish behind Stratum in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot and in the Listed Esher Stakes at Sandown Park. He was a close fourth on seasonal reappearance at Wolverhampton and ran well to finish sixth in the Chester Cup before finishing second in the Ascot Stakes at this year's Royal meeting. He's a three-time winner on the all-weather and looks overpriced at 16/1.
Nathanael Greene has cheekpieces back after some moderate runs in handicap company and could post a better performance. His fourth at Goodwood was given a boost when Courage Mon Ami came out and won the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup during the Royal meeting, but he's better analysed on his fourth in the William Hill Best Odds Guaranteed Handicap at York in October. It was his second time wearing cheekpieces and he ran well behind Post Impressionist on good-to-soft ground. The all-weather would be a bit of an unknown – he placed in a maiden on his sole start at Lingfield Park.
Post Impressionist makes his seasonal reappearance having not been seen since the aforementioned victory in the William Hill Best Odds Guaranteed Handicap at York in October. He showed some good form as a three-year-old, including a rock-solid second behind subsequent Ebor winner Eldar Eldarov in a novice stakes event, and remains unexposed over two miles.
Course and distance winner Zoffee is an excellent servant for his trainer Hugo Palmer (who won this race with Caravan Of Hope in 2020) and picked up the consolation Northumberland Vase Handicap on this card twelve months ago. He has been in the mix in all of these staying handicaps over the last year, including when second behind Metier in the Chester Cup and a fourth in the Cesarewitch Handicap at Newmarket in October. There aren't many negatives about him, but he's probably just susceptible to an improving horse in the closing stages.
Of the longer-priced runners, Rainbow Dreamer appeared to have the perfect prep by winning the course and distance All-Weather Marathon Championships Conditions Stakes and connections have waited for this. He sits near the top of the ratings on his return to handicaps, but he's more than capable of winning off this mark and shouldn't be underestimated.
WIN: CALLING THE WIND
PLACE: ZOFFEE
