Boys in blue to strike in the Group 1

 

Shadwell Fillies’ Mile
Newmarket
3.15pm, C4 and RUK

GO, GO GODOLPHIN

Group One action at Newmarket this afternoon with the Shadwell Fillies’ Mile over a mile (oh yes, the clue to the distance was in the title !!).

After a big boil over in the big race yesterday it’s hard to rule out any of the fillies here.

Rizeena brings Group One form into the race after her defeat of Tapestry in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh. She stayed on really well that day and should be well suited by the extra furlong here.

The boys in blue have two strong challengers though in Ihtimal and Sound Reflection.

The market prefers Ihtimal who has won a Group 3, a Group 2 last time out and now takes her chance at the top level.

She was really impressive when winning the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster last time out and is clearly on the upgrade.

Sound Reflection is unbeaten in two starts and has a lot more to prove but has the scope for further improvement.

I’m backing both Godolphin runners – staking to ensure a small profit on Ihtimal and the bigger win on Sound Reflection.

STAR FORECAST
(stake between 0.5 and 10 points)
5 points win IHTIMAL at around 2/1
3 points win SOUND REFLECTION at around 6/1

AUTO PILOT

The majority of pilots have fallen asleep while on the flight deck of a passenger aircraft, according to a survey.

Pilots’ union Balpa found that 56% admitted to napping in the middle of a flight, with 29% of those saying that when they woke up, they found their co-pilot asleep too.

The results come a day after it was revealed that two pilots had nodded off at the same time at the controls of a flight from London to New Zealand.

That incident, which happened on an Airbus passenger jet which was on autopilot at the time, was reported to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Now Balpa, who polled 500 pilots, have found that 84% of those who responded felt that their abilities had been “compromised” by tiredness at some stage in the last six months.

Nearly half (49%) felt that tiredness was the biggest threat to flight safety – three times more than any other issue.